Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Precise or proper to the point of affectation; excessively decorous.
- adj. Strait-laced; prudish.
- adj. Neat and trim: a prim hedgerow.
- v. To fix (the face or mouth) in a prim expression.
- v. To make prim, as in dress or appearance.
- v. To assume a prim expression.
- n. A privet.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Neat; formal; stiffly precise; affectedly nice; demure.
- n. A neat, pretty girl.
- To deck with great nicety; form or dispose with affected preciseness; prink; make prim.
- To make one's self print or precise.
- n. The fry of the smelt.
- n. The privet. See Ligustrum.
- n. An abbreviation of primary.
Wiktionary
- v. To make affectedly precise or proper.
- adj. prudish, overly correct in behaviour, straight-laced
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The privet.
- adj. Formal; precise; affectedly neat or nice
- v. To deck with great nicety; to arrange with affected preciseness; to prink.
- v. To dress or act smartly.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. exaggeratedly proper
- v. contract one's lips
- v. assume a prim appearance
- adj. affectedly dainty or refined
- v. dress primly
Etymologies
- Possibly from obsolete prim, formal or demure person, perhaps from Old French prin, first, delicate; see prime.Short for obsolete primprint, of unknown origin.
Examples
“We have 15,000 prims to make the world come alive (a prim is the fundamental building unit in Second Life).”
“Each "big" set is completed by and linked to an invisible prim, which is positioned at the center of the big virtual sphere, and this invisible prim responds to start and stop commands.”
“A prim is a basic building block that is used to create build anything and everything in the virtual world of Second Life®.”
“She was what is called prim in her manner, and as delicate as an American.”
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 342, April, 1844
“She had many times been called prim and old-fashioned, especially at school, by Joan and others when men were talked about, and the glittering life that lay beyond the walls.”
“Well, I don't think we're exactly what you'd call prim and proper," chuckled Meg.”
“It is only what the law terms primâ facie evidence; that is, good until contradicted or explained.”
“I found that the day was Sunday, and roughly allowing for the difference of time in this longitude, I concluded that at the moment of my hearing that strange peal the church-going bells of Marlen must have been actually calling the prim congregation of the parish to morning prayer.”
“At this time I kept a poor shabby pretence of a journal, which just enabled me to know the day of the month and the week according to the European calendar, and when in my tent at night I got out my pocket-book I found that the day was Sunday, and roughly allowing for the difference of time in this longitude, I concluded that at the moment of my hearing that strange peal the church-going bells of Marlen must have been actually calling the prim congregation of the parish to morning prayer.”
“On a semi-technical point, it's entirely possible to script fractal tree like things that are all rezzed by a single root prim which is how I wrote mine, didn't trust myself to not create some grey goo accidentally.”
Jaymin Carthage gets the boot from Linden Lab for his "branch"
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘prim’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Kingly epithets
Take one of CharlesFerdinand's excellent Merovingians or Goths, add a "the" and one of these descriptors, and presto, a character for your long-planned spoof fantasy novel.
unlikely, chuckleheaded, aloof, lacklustre, slow, murky, neurotic, clichéd, pediculous, dour, bungling, dandy and 23 more...
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