prim

Ms Boulton said many other airlines were more "prim and proper", but EasyJet "made it more casual".

From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2025

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2025

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

When she talked, it was in the prim and proper voice of someone who understands flower shows and country homes.

From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez

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

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 Harold Bindloss

"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

Her elder and primmer sister only half liked him.

From A Trooper Galahad by Charles King

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

But these things had been there in the reign of Mr. Meredith's predecessor, when the manse had been the primmest, neatest, and dreariest house in the Glen.

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

You founded a whist-club in Trinity, the primmest college of all.

From A Woman-Hater by Charles Reade

He saw the fine thin lips, like a woman's, primmed in satisfaction.

From The Path of the King by John Buchan

Madame primmed and preened herself like a black pigeon, and darted glances out of her black eyes.

From The Lost Girl by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

The following Monday Anne surprised Marilla by coming down from her room with her basket of books on her arm and hip and her lips primmed up into a line of determination.

From Anne of Green Gables by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

With other thought, mark also the Abbe 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 The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle

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

From Geoffrey Strong by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

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

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

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

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