prim
adjective
formally precise or proper, as persons or behavior; stiffly neat.
prim
1 American
[prim]
/ prɪm /
adjective
-
primmer,
comparative
-
primmest
superlative
verb (used without object)
primmed,
primming
verb (used with object)
primmed,
primming
-
to make prim, as in appearance.
-
to draw (one's face, lips, etc.) into a prim expression.
prim
2
American
[prim]
/ prɪm /
noun
prim.
3
American
abbreviation
-
primary.
-
primitive.
prim
British
/ prɪm /
adjective
verb
-
(tr) to make prim
-
to purse (the mouth) primly or (of the mouth) to be so pursed
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of prim1
First recorded in 1675–85; origin uncertain
Origin of prim2
First recorded in 1565–75; shortening of earlier primprint privet < ?
Explanation
Prim means polite, straight-laced, even twee. Many characters in Jane Austen novels are prim and proper. Prim describes someone who is so concerned with being proper it becomes almost fake. If you go to the beach on spring break wearing a Victorian bathing costume, you're being prim. Clothes can be prim, too, like that long wool swimsuit. If you're feeling crazy, you can use prim as a verb meaning, "to purse your mouth into a prim expression" — like how you prim your lips when you look down your nose at someone using the wrong fork.
Vocabulary lists containing prim
Bridge to Terabithia
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Frindle
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The Egypt Game
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Everything is prim, but the picture’s mood is as weirdly glum as it is exuberant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
Miss Higgins, played by Georgie Glen, is the prim surgery receptionist with a poignant family backstory, which revealed her hidden strengths.
From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2024
Not only are viewers watching boldface names eat, they’re also watching them eat foods that are considered distasteful — which goes against the prim and proper image that celebrities are expected to uphold.
From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2024
A portrait of a prim young lady in bright brushstrokes was being sold for $5,190.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2023
I’ve played the part of a prim young lady on the stage, and I’ll try it off.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Place of imprisonment, penitentiary; prim. a fortress, or the garrison thereof.
From The Bible in Spain - Vol. 2 [of 2] by George Henry Borrow
A stew; prim. the pot in which the stew is made, which, as in the case of the olla, has come to signify the contents.
From The Bible in Spain - Vol. 2 [of 2] by George Henry Borrow
I think it is, Edwardi sext. or prim. et quint.
From An Essay on Man by Henry Morley
The brasher yet primmer Adewunmi speaks in a cosmopolitan London accent, while the quieter but more moan-prone Perkins drawls in a slight Tennessee twang.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2018
To hear the "pulpit genius," Dr. Joseph Parker, actors, authors, artists and bohemians pressed into City Temple alongside primmer Victorians.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Let me look out," said the second lady, who was, if possible, older and thinner and primmer than the first.
From The Strand Magazine, Volume XXVII, Issue 160, April, 1904 by Various
Now my Hector, here, is a dog of education after his fashion, and, though the meanest primmer in the settlements would puzzle his information, you could not cheat the hound in a matter like this.
From The Prairie by James Fenimore Cooper
The ladies of Charles II's reign were a little coarser, a little primmer, a good deal more ignorant than those of our age.
From A Century of English Essays An Anthology Ranging from Caxton to R. L. Stevenson & the Writers of Our Own Time by Ernest Rhys
And even the primmest of towns will have their mischief-makers.
From Slate ● May 4, 2026
Into an elegant manse atop the white cliffs of England's south coast ventures Deborah Kerr, beautifully coiffed and dressed for a royal weekend, doing her primmest impersonation of a gentlewoman fallen upon difficult days.
From Time Magazine Archive
He styled Clare, who talked Baedeker to him in her primmest and most precocious way, Miss Guest; and once at least during the evening he dubbed me plain Bab.
From Laid up in Lavender by Stanley J. Weyman
"Infatuated child!" she said, in her primmest and most fashionable accent.
From Aunt Rachel by David Christie Murray
I took the liberty of going up to tell the young ladies and Mrs. Brough, when Master Peterkin first returned,' said James in his very politest and primmest tone.
From Peterkin by H. R. (Harold Robert) Millar
Her saffron hue, Her thinnish lips, close primmed as they were sewn Up by a milliner, and made water-proof, To guard the fount of wisdom that's within.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 495, June 25, 1831 by Various
Jo understood why Laurie "primmed up his mouth" when speaking of Kate, for that young lady had a stand-off-don't-touch-me air, which contrasted strongly with the free and easy demeanor of the other girls.
From Little Women or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott
Before the pleasant afternoon closed, he had gained permission to call the truant Letty, and she primmed her rosy lips as he taught her to say Will.
From The Chequers Being the Natural History of a Public-House, Set Forth in a Loafer's Diary by James Runciman
His lips were primmed so close that his mouth was hardly discernible, and his dark deep eye flashed gleams of holy indignation on the godless set, but particularly on his brother.
From The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
As Pet Marjorie would say, I am primmed up with majestic pride because of the compliments I receive.
From Olivia in India by O. Douglas
His face was dingy, his lips were grey, From primming sparrowbills day by day; As he turned his boot he heard a noise At his garden-end and he thought, "It's boys."
From Reynard the Fox by John Masefield
To wind up all, Ellwood, primming up his Mouth, says, "Thou hast found much to tell us, Friend Milton, on Paradise Lost;—now, what hast thou to tell of Paradise Regained?"
From Mary Powell & Deborah's Diary by Anne Manning
Then pulled herself together as the landlady in curled fringe and long grey ulster entered the room, primming long, thin lips.
From The Privet Hedge by J. E. Buckrose
"I told Ma that she had on bracelets, and Ma said she feared your cousin was a worldly person," retorted Cecy, primming up her lips.
From What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge
She sat very straight in her chair, eating with the careful gentility of a bird, and primming her thin lips after every mouthful of tea.
From Huntingtower by John Buchan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
