prig
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
prigs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
prigged,
past participle, past
-
prigging
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
prigs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
prigged,
past participle, past
-
prigging
present participle
-
Scot. and North England. to haggle or argue over price.
-
British Informal. to beg or entreat; ask a favor.
noun
verb
noun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
prigsimple
-
prigssimple
-
have priggedperfect
-
has priggedperfect
-
am priggingprogressive
-
are priggingprogressive
-
is priggingprogressive
-
have been priggingperfect progressive
-
has been priggingperfect progressive
Past
-
priggedsimple
-
had priggedperfect
-
was priggingprogressive
-
were priggingprogressive
-
had been priggingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of prig1
First recorded in 1560–70; formerly, “coxcomb”; perhaps akin to prink
Origin of prig2
First recorded in 1505–15; originally thieves' cant; origin uncertain
Explanation
If you act like you're better than everyone else, they might start calling you a prig — a snobby and arrogant person. A prig might lecture his friends about their manners, or complain about having to eat at a diner instead of a fancier restaurant. Prigs tend to be self-centered and uptight and aren't much fun to be around. In the eighteenth century, prig meant "precise in speech in manners," and implied someone who was deeply religious. The origin of the word is a mystery — its earlier meanings included "dandy or fop" and "thief."
Vocabulary lists containing prig
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:
What if I sounded like a moralizing, self-righteous prig?
From Salon ● Dec. 30, 2023
The Professor, Sonia’s father, is a selfish and pompous prig who hates Vanya as much as Vanya hates him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2023
Are you as warmhearted as you say you are, or are you just a crusty old prig who wants to watch old empires while eating your chips and seven-bean dip?
From Washington Post ● Mar. 27, 2023
Other additions to the story seem designed to make the male characters more odious — Uncle Matthew more of a violent ogre, Fanny’s husband, Alfred, more of a domineering prig.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2021
The transition from libertine to prig was so complete.
From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“We are all a bunch of prigs in Washington, after all.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 25, 2018
When Stiers played Winchester for comedy, his clipped diction and dry delivery made for one of television’s greatest prigs.
From Slate ● Mar. 4, 2018
At the same time the intellectual elite—particularly the Bloomsbury set—took to ridiculing as prigs and bores the Victorian giants who had built up the economic and moral capital which they lived off.
From Economist ● Oct. 5, 2017
P prigs In Middlemarch, George Eliot has Fred Vincy make the splendid observation that “correct English is the slang of prigs”.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 25, 2016
There is enough and to spare of blame ready in any balanced mind for either of these great writers, but they can do without the admiration of wooden-headed prigs, however able.
From The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, October 1879 by Various
I prigged it; Simmy here whipped it into pretty Mary's reticule, which she, I suppose, never looked into till the row came; and you claimed it—a regular merry-go-round, ain't it, eh?
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol III, No 13, 1851 by Various
"Hallo!" shouted one of those at the cards, "here's Jack Brereton has prigged the ace of hearts."
From Willy Reilly The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton
I've brought an enamelled mug, because it doesn't break like a teacup, and a little old Britannia metal teapot that I prigged from the attic.
From The Head Girl at the Gables by Angela Brazil
I prigged it; Simmy here whipped it into pretty Mary's reticule, which she, I suppose, never looked into till the row came; and you claimed it—a regular merry-go-round, eh?
From The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, June, 1851 by Various
I've seen lassies makkin' themsels sma' for lads often enough, but I never saw ane 'at prigged so muckle wi' her ain brother.
From A Window in Thrums by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
I have not, as you somewhat broadly insinuate, been prigging bits of your matchless rhetoric in order to give currency and flavour to my own more maudlin articles.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 60, No. 373, November 1846 by Various
The drying and bleaching linen was an unceasing attraction to rascals like Autolycus, who had a "pugging tooth"—that is, a prigging tooth.
From Old-Time Gardens Newly Set Forth by Alice Morse Earle
"Yes; but you'd have to move, and if we took an inventory, I think we"d find that Mr. Beeton has been prigging little things out of the rooms here and there.
From The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition by Rudyard Kipling
"Dont'ee tell her of my being here, Mr. Fenwick, and nobody shan't ever come anigh this place again,—not in the way of prigging anything."
From The Vicar of Bullhampton by Anthony Trollope
Next minute there was me, my very arms prigging wi' him to think better o't, and him standing ready to loup, has knees bent, and not a tremble in them.
From The Little Minister by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
