prissy
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- prissily adverb
- prissiness noun
Etymology
Origin of prissy
Explanation
A prissy person likes things to be neat and tidy, and expects people to follow the rules and be extremely polite. If your prissy cousin invites you to a tea party, you'd better arrive on time and wear your white gloves. Prissy people are extremely prim and proper, and they may also be so fastidious that the sight of your muddy dog running through the dining room will disgust them. You could also complain about your school's prissy dress code, which doesn't allow you to wear your Wonder Woman costume to math class. Prissy is thought to be a Southern US invention from the late 1800s, either rooted in precise, or a combination of sissy and prim.
Vocabulary lists containing prissy
Bridge to Terabithia
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The Shining
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The Sound and the Fury
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
UIC’s prissy bullies, like fanatics generally, have no sense of irony.
From Washington Post • Feb. 11, 2022
Acknowledging this by seeking better language is a basic effort to be polite, not prissy.
From Scientific American • Feb. 20, 2021
In the novel, John is prissy and deeply neurotic, anti-sex and anti-fun.
From New York Times • Jul. 13, 2020
I joined Blue Peter when I was 28, so I wasn’t going to be living a nun-like existence, but the first responsibility was always – it sounds so prissy – to the viewer.
From The Guardian • Oct. 19, 2019
She walked in that same prissy, dainty way.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
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.
