prim

Early in her career, Swift had a reputation for being prim and proper.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2025

Miss Higgins, played by Georgie Glen, is the prim surgery receptionist with a poignant family backstory, which revealed her hidden strengths.

From BBC ● Dec. 26, 2024

Before each performance, the scene is set by a narrator who speaks in a prim, puritanical accent reminiscent of a bygone era.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2024

Not only are viewers watching boldface names eat, they’re also watching them eat foods that are considered distasteful — which goes against the prim and proper image that celebrities are expected to uphold.

From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2024

Thank you, Mom says, all prim and proper-like.

From "Booked" by Kwame Alexander

The brasher yet primmer Adewunmi speaks in a cosmopolitan London accent, while the quieter but more moan-prone Perkins drawls in a slight Tennessee twang.

From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2018

To hear the "pulpit genius," Dr. Joseph Parker, actors, authors, artists and bohemians pressed into City Temple alongside primmer Victorians.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Be the tarnal primmer, Dandy Duffy, but I see it now!" said the Rouser, struck by Bartle's address, and indignant at the idea of having been overreached by him.

From Fardorougha, The Miser The Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton

Now my Hector, here, is a dog of education after his fashion, and, though the meanest primmer in the settlements would puzzle his information, you could not cheat the hound in a matter like this.

From The Prairie by James Fenimore Cooper

She was sewing as for dear life, and her face was primmer and colder than ever.

From Chronicles of Avonlea by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

And even the primmest of towns will have their mischief-makers.

From Slate ● May 4, 2026

Into an elegant manse atop the white cliffs of England's south coast ventures Deborah Kerr, beautifully coiffed and dressed for a royal weekend, doing her primmest impersonation of a gentlewoman fallen upon difficult days.

From Time Magazine Archive

Her voice was the primmest thing in voices she had ever heard.

From His Hour by Elinor Glyn

And, somehow, all this has not seemed to make the faintest difference to her clientèle, not even to the primmest of the English.

From Grey Roses by Henry Harland

She nervously dressed for the “likeness,” for which she assumed her primmest pose.

From David Dunne A Romance of the Middle West by Belle Kanaris Maniates

The Ladies' Society fluttered at sight of him, and primmed itself, and shook out its skirts.

From Geoffrey Strong by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

Jo understood why Laurie "primmed up his mouth" when speaking of Kate, for that young lady had a stand-off-don't-touch-me air, which contrasted strongly with the free and easy demeanor of the other girls.

From Little Women or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott

With other thought, mark also the Abbé Maury; his broad bold face, mouth accurately primmed, full eyes, that ray out intelligence, falsehood,—the sort of sophistry which is astonished you should find it sophistical.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. VIII by Various

Before the pleasant afternoon closed, he had gained permission to call the truant Letty, and she primmed her rosy lips as he taught her to say Will.

From The Chequers Being the Natural History of a Public-House, Set Forth in a Loafer's Diary by James Runciman

Mrs. Davis asked herself, and then primmed up her unbeautiful mouth.

From Rainbow Valley by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Then pulled herself together as the landlady in curled fringe and long grey ulster entered the room, primming long, thin lips.

From The Privet Hedge by J. E. Buckrose

She sat very straight in her chair, eating with the careful gentility of a bird, and primming her thin lips after every mouthful of tea.

From Huntingtower by John Buchan

"I told Ma that she had on bracelets, and Ma said she feared your cousin was a worldly person," retorted Cecy, primming up her lips.

From What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge

His face was dingy, his lips were grey, From primming sparrowbills day by day; As he turned his boot he heard a noise At his garden-end and he thought, "It's boys."

From Reynard the Fox by John Masefield

To wind up all, Ellwood, primming up his Mouth, says, "Thou hast found much to tell us, Friend Milton, on Paradise Lost;—now, what hast thou to tell of Paradise Regained?"

From Mary Powell & Deborah's Diary by Anne Manning