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
Before each performance, the scene is set by a narrator who speaks in a prim, puritanical accent reminiscent of a bygone era.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2024
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
She was a quiet, intense little girl, rather prim in her way, and this outpouring was unusual.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Place of imprisonment, penitentiary; prim. a fortress, or the garrison thereof.
From The Bible in Spain - Vol. 2 [of 2] by Borrow, George Henry
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
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
"Be the tarnal primmer, Dandy Duffy, but I see it now!" said the Rouser, struck by Bartle's address, and indignant at the idea of having been overreached by him.
From Fardorougha, The Miser The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by Carleton, William
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
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)
"Will you two please listen to reason?" queried Betty, in her primmest tones.
From The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House Or, doing their best for the soldiers by Hope, Laura Lee
Her voice was the primmest thing in voices she had ever heard.
From His Hour by Glyn, Elinor
Mrs. Davis asked herself, and then primmed up her unbeautiful mouth.
From Rainbow Valley by Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud)
The Ladies' Society fluttered at sight of him, and primmed itself, and shook out its skirts.
From Geoffrey Strong by Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe
As Pet Marjorie would say, I am primmed up with majestic pride because of the compliments I receive.
From Olivia in India by Douglas, O.
Madame primmed and preened herself like a black pigeon, and darted glances out of her black eyes.
From The Lost Girl by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
The following Monday Anne surprised Marilla by coming down from her room with her basket of books on her arm and hip and her lips primmed up into a line of determination.
From Anne of Green Gables by Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud)
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
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
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.
