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
Miss Higgins, played by Georgie Glen, is the prim surgery receptionist with a poignant family backstory, which revealed her hidden strengths.
From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2024
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
He fluttered down to the armrest of the rocking chair and made himself as prim and still as he possibly could.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
I think it is, Edwardi sext. or prim. et quint.
From An Essay on Man by Morley, 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
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
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
Her elder and primmer sister only half liked him.
From A Trooper Galahad by King, Charles
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
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 Bindloss, Harold
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
You founded a whist-club in Trinity, the primmest college of all.
From A Woman-Hater by Reade, Charles
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)
Oil-of-Gladness was a nice little rosy girl in the tightest and primmest of caps and collars, and with the little housewifely hospitality that young mistresses of houses early attain to.
From Unknown to History: a story of the captivity of Mary of Scotland by Yonge, Charlotte Mary
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.
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
Borso's eyes twinkled, and he primmed his lips.
From Little Novels of Italy by Hewlett, Maurice Henry
The Ladies' Society fluttered at sight of him, and primmed itself, and shook out its skirts.
From Geoffrey Strong by Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe
Mrs. Davis asked herself, and then primmed up her unbeautiful mouth.
From Rainbow Valley by Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud)
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
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
"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
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.
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
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.
