priss

American  

[pris] / prɪs /

noun

1. 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.

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verb (used without object)

1. 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.

Etymology

Origin of priss

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

Example Sentences

Amina keeps her musical activities a secret from her devout school friends, forcing the already nervous priss into a double life.

From Washington Post • Jun. 16, 2021

But whatever calculations had gone into the match of a priss and a perfectionist were now deconstructed.

From Salon • Jan. 18, 2016

If I decline to eat one, I am a calorie-phobic priss who's terrified of displaying weakness in public.

From The Guardian • May 11, 2013

Sure, you could point out at length that Swift is being a bit of a sour-faced priss here, but there's no win for women in ripping chunks out of other women.

From The Guardian • Mar. 9, 2013

Surely, it must kill old priss face to have to put rave notices—“Excellent” “Good, clear thinking” “Nice Work”— on the papers of someone who so obviously disliked her.

From "The Great Gilly Hopkins" by Katherine Paterson