to make prim, as in appearance.
to draw (one's face, lips, etc.) into a prim expression.
primary.
primitive.
(tr) to make prim
to purse (the mouth) primly or (of the mouth) to be so pursed
First recorded in 1675–85; origin uncertain
First recorded in 1565–75; shortening of earlier primprint privet < ?
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Everything is prim, but the picture’s mood is as weirdly glum as it is exuberant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 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
It is also, at the risk of sounding prim, worth noting how unusual it is for the Treasury to be teasing quite so much around tax cuts just before a big statement like this.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2023
A portrait of a prim young lady in bright brushstrokes was being sold for $5,190.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2023
A prim woman with bobbed hair and a throaty French accent asked Felicia to remove her shoes and knee socks, then made a note in a calfskin ledger.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
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 Borrow, George Henry
Place of imprisonment, penitentiary; prim. a fortress, or the garrison thereof.
From The Bible in Spain - Vol. 2 [of 2] by Borrow, George Henry
I think it is, Edwardi sext. or prim. et quint.
From An Essay on Man by Morley, Henry
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
Occasionally the twins, in state, visited Dawes Road, where Henry's mother was a little stouter and Aunt Annie a little thinner and a little primmer, but where nothing else was changed.
From A Great Man A Frolic by Bennett, Arnold
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 Cooper, James Fenimore
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 Rhys, Ernest
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 Weyman, Stanley J.
According to what I am told, the girl Barons were the primmest creatures I ever heard of.
From Miss Lou by Roe, Edward Payson
Your father is a gallant-hearted, soft-headed little doll; your mother the sweetest and primmest of dolls.
From Paul Kelver, a Novel by Jerome, Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka)
Borso's eyes twinkled, and he primmed his lips.
From Little Novels of Italy by Hewlett, Maurice Henry
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 Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud)
You ought to be 'all primmed up with majestick pride.'
From The Governess by Chickering, Charles R.
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 Runciman, James
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 Alcott, Louisa May
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 Buckrose, J. E.
"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 Coolidge, Susan
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 Manning, Anne
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 Masefield, John
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 Buchan, John
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.
