prim

This bold diagonal, cut through the prim Quaker street grid, produced a great many awkwardly shaped blocks, including the pointy trapezoid between the Parkway and the Vine Street Expressway that houses Calder Gardens.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 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

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

A portrait of a prim young lady in bright brushstrokes was being sold for $5,190.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2023

The Wesleys were professional people, prim and proper, but not in a stuck-up way.

From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry

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

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

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

"Let me look out," said the second lady, who was, if possible, older and thinner and primmer than the first.

From The Strand Magazine, Volume XXVII, Issue 160, April, 1904 by Various

Mrs. Ratcliffe's pose grew perceptibly primmer as he proceeded, and he recognized that any confidence she might have had in him was being severely shaken.

From Long Odds by Bindloss, Harold

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

She was a comely, motherly woman, dressed in the primmest fashion in vogue twenty years before, in England, among the class to which she belonged.

From Curious, if True Strange Tales by Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn

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

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

I took the liberty of going up to tell the young ladies and Mrs. Brough, when Master Peterkin first returned,' said James in his very politest and primmest tone.

From Peterkin by Millar, H. R. (Harold Robert)

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

You ought to be 'all primmed up with majestick pride.'

From The Governess by Chickering, Charles R.

Her saffron hue, Her thinnish lips, close primmed as they were sewn Up by a milliner, and made water-proof, To guard the fount of wisdom that's within.

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 495, June 25, 1831 by Various

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

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

As Pet Marjorie would say, I am primmed up with majestic pride because of the compliments I receive.

From Olivia in India by Douglas, O.

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 Masefield, John

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 Buchan, John

"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 Coolidge, Susan

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 Manning, Anne

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 Buckrose, J. E.