Prynne
Americannoun
noun
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.
The author likens Grietje to the women of Salem and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne, describing her as one of early America’s “unfairly and heinously maligned women.”
From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026
When William arrives at his New York hotel, the front desk greets him: “Wow, look who it is, Hester Prynne herself.”
From Washington Post • Feb. 1, 2021
The Puritan appetite needs regular sating; every generation, you could say, must have its Hester Prynne.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 6, 2019
Think of Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter": Hester Prynne experienced shame, while her lover Arthur Dimmesdale experienced guilt.
From New York Times • Nov. 27, 2017
He felt troubled by this ending to the story of Hester Prynne; the woman, after all, deserved better.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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.
