prim

CEFRB2

/pɹɪm/

adjective · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Very careful and formal in behavior or appearance.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Of things: Neat; trim.

Examples

  • She was a rather prim and proper young lady.

  • That president's secretary is always prim.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
3

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Of a person, their manner or appearance: Formal and precise; stiffly decorous.

  2. Of a person: Prudish; straight-laced.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To make one's expression prim.

More examples

In context

  • prim regularity

  • God damn it, what does she want of me, this sad, beautiful bridgeplayer of the Fifth Floor, with her air of lost love and her prim carnality?

  • Philemon was in great Surprize,⁠ And hardly could believe his Eyes, Amaz’d to ſee her look ſo prim; And ſhe admir’d as much at him.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The old lady was very blank, always wearing a neat dress and speaking politely.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

Of uncertain origin. In the verb sense, first appeared in Thomas D'Urfey's A Fool's Preferment in the year 1688. In the noun sense, first appeared in A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew in the year 1699, meaning "prig." Now obsolete. In the adjective sense, first appeared in Sir Richard Steele's The Funeral in the year 1702, meaning "consciously or affectedly strict or precise; stiffly formal and respectable." Oxford English Dictionary proposed a relation with primp and prink. Chiefly Scottish and U.S.