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.

Reed and Cale had a minor hit dance song, "The Ostrich," when they played as The Primitives, but it wasn't until they appeared as The Velvet Underground that the songs "really came to life."

From Salon • Oct. 14, 2021

The Primitives were a cheerily fuzzy post-Mary Chain pop band whose chart success owed everything to cleaning themselves up with 1988 single Crash, and nothing to Morrissey banging on about them.

From The Guardian • Feb. 28, 2018

The main focus of the collection is the works of the Flemish Primitives, including Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling and Hugo van der Goes.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 18, 2017

Phillips asked Cale to join a Pickwick band called the Primitives, which was promoting “The Ostrich,” a goofy, chaotic pop song written by Lou Reed, who was then a songwriter and session musician for Pickwick.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 22, 2017

The Primitives, Italian and Flemish, saw the universe with amazing clearness; their pictorial metaphysics was clarity itself; their mysticism was never muddy; all nature was settled, serene, and brilliantly silhouetted.

From Ivory Apes and Peacocks by Huneker, James