priggish

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.

Frank Burns, the priggish Army doctor who was obsessed with nurse “Hot Lips” Houlihan in “MASH,” Duvall specialized in tightly wound tough guys.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 16, 2026

He aimed his deepest scorn at Nunn, whom he blamed for his downfall, denouncing him as blindly ambitious, duplicitous, timid, and priggish.

From Slate • Jan. 23, 2025

It was hardly the first role that allowed him to explore fussy or priggish characters.

From New York Times • Feb. 5, 2023

Woolf, like several other characters in “Run,” is based on a real person; Cocker-Norris, whom Oyelowo renders with an amusingly priggish persnickety-ness, is not.

From Washington Post • Sep. 13, 2022

And the hapless boy who represented the traveler was the priggish little scholar they most cordially disliked.

From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare