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:
Fonsia is a prim, religious woman who bridles at Weller’s obstreperousness and salty expressions of annoyance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Ms Boulton said many other airlines were more "prim and proper", but EasyJet "made it more casual".
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2025
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
So pinched and prim like she was, I could tell she was on a fast road to becoming a dowdy old matron.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
I think it is, Edwardi sext. or prim. et quint.
From An Essay on Man by Henry Morley
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
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
Mrs. Ratcliffe's pose grew perceptibly primmer as he proceeded, and he recognized that any confidence she might have had in him was being severely shaken.
From Long Odds by Harold Bindloss
"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
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
The purser's steward, primmest of Methodists, who was said to pass his time in action converting the cook, came tripping out of the galley, a black-jack of boiling water in his hand.
From The Gentleman A Romance of the Sea by Alfred Ollivant
His wife, she was the primmest thing, as neat as any doll, And looked like one when walking by her husband big and tall.
From The Cornflower, and Other Poems by Jean Blewett
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
Borso's eyes twinkled, and he primmed his lips.
From Little Novels of Italy by Maurice Henry Hewlett
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
You ought to be 'all primmed up with majestick pride.'
From The Governess by Charles R. Chickering
She just primmed up her lips very determinedly, picked up the silk dress, and carried it to her room.
From Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1907 to 1908 by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery
With other thought, mark also the Abbé Maury; his broad bold face, mouth accurately primmed, full eyes, that ray out intelligence, falsehood,—the sort of sophistry which is astonished you should find it sophistical.
From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. VIII by Various
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
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
"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
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
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.
