priss

[ pris ]

noun

someone who is excessively prim, proper, or fussy; an affectedly dainty or prissy person: Call me a priss, but I think the relentless explicitness in this novel reduces the characters somehow.

verb (used without object)

to act or move in a prim, fussy, or affectedly dainty way, like a priss: I’m not one to primp and priss over myself in the bathroom.At halftime I like to see the baton twirlers priss around in their itty-bitty costumes.

Origin of priss

An Americanism dating back to 1920–25; back formation from prissy

Amina keeps her musical activities a secret from her devout school friends, forcing the already nervous priss into a double life.
Rom-com ‘Starstruck’ and coming-of-age comedy ‘We Are Lady Parts’ are this month’s hidden TV gems | Inkoo Kang | June 16, 2021 | Washington Post
In those hours beside Mark, priss completed the transition from girl to woman.
All the Brothers Were Valiant | Ben Ames Williams
priss read it over his shoulder, and afterwards she clung close to Joel.
All the Brothers Were Valiant | Ben Ames Williams
Joel was below, in the cabin with priss, when his brother boarded the ship.
All the Brothers Were Valiant | Ben Ames Williams
“My dear priss,” he said, in the elder-brother manner he affected toward her.
All the Brothers Were Valiant | Ben Ames Williams

priss had planned to go ashore in the afternoon; but Mark dissuaded her.
All the Brothers Were Valiant | Ben Ames Williams

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