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:
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
In comparison, Schultz comes off as less of a martinet and more of a prig in the trial transcripts.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2020
He arrived as a scolding prig, criticizing Mr. Odenkirk’s Jimmy even as he relied on him for care.
From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2017
Before this happened, I had all the makings of a fine young prig, with a highly developed and thoroughly inflexible sense of rectitude.
From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2016
“I had nae wish to kill! He was own cousin to the Orkneys! And think ye that the southron prig, him of the white shield, had before refused to ride with him!”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
“We are all a bunch of prigs in Washington, after all.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 25, 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
How the prigs managed to nab the labels “correct” and “proper” for their particular form of slang is another matter.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 25, 2016
Purists and prigs might recoil, but if they do, then Mr. Barker will probably feel that he has done his job.
From New York Times ● Jul. 17, 2013
Sophy was one of the prigs who do not care to drink even in reason.
From Shadows of Flames A Novel by Amélie Rives
I crept up to them, thinking what an appetite I'd got, I gloated o'er them lying there elastic and all hot; I thought of butter laid on thick, and then I prigged the lot!
From Humorous Readings and Recitations In prose and verse by Various
“We prigged wi’ Tammas no to gang to the manse till we was sure the minister was living.
From The Little Minister by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
"You don't mean to say that old woman prigged it?" asked Hurd.
From The Opal Serpent by Fergus Hume
"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 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
Next minute there was me, my very arms prigging wi’ him to think better o’t, and him standing ready to loup, his knees bent, and not a tremble in them.
From The Little Minister by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
The cove was lagged for prigging a peter with several stretch of dobbin from a drag; the fellow was transported for stealing a trunk, containing several yards of ribband, from a waggon.
From 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose
Aha!" quoth Godby the peddler, winking roguish eye, "On the prigging lay perchance, cull, or peradventure the mill-ken?
From Black Bartlemy's Treasure by Jeffery Farnol
"What do you mean by prigging my things for your stall?" she demanded angrily.
From The Head Girl at the Gables by Angela Brazil
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
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.
