prig

(prĭg)

1. A person who demonstrates an exaggerated conformity or propriety, especially in an irritatingly arrogant or smug manner.

2. Archaic

a. A petty thief or pickpocket.

b. A conceited dandy; a fop.

tr.v. prigged, prig·ging, prigs Chiefly British

To steal or pilfer.

[Origin unknown.]

prig′ger·y n.

prig′gish adj.

prig′gish·ly adv.

prig′gish·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

priggish - exaggeratedly proper; "my straitlaced Aunt Anna doesn't approve of my miniskirts"

square-toed, straightlaced, straight-laced, straitlaced, strait-laced, tight-laced, prissy, prudish, puritanical, prim, victorian

proper - marked by suitability or rightness or appropriateness; "proper medical treatment"; "proper manners"

priggish

adjective self-righteous, smug, stiff, stuffy, prim, puritanical, narrow-minded, pedantic, starchy (informal), self-satisfied, prudish, goody-goody (informal), holier-than-thou He was a priggish, self-righteous little sneak.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

priggish

adjective

Marked by excessive concern for propriety and good form:

bluenosed, genteel, old-maidish, precise, prim, prissy, proper, prudish, puritanical, strait-laced, stuffy, Victorian.

Idiom: prim and proper.

Translations

مُتَباهٍ، مُعْتَز بِنَفْسِه

ješitný

selvglad

selbstgefällig

suffisant

beképzelt

sjálfsánægîur

presuntuoso

ukalâ

自命不凡的自负的

priggish

[ˈprɪgɪʃ] ADJ → gazmoño, mojigato

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

priggish

[ˈprɪgɪʃ] adj [person] → suffisant(e)

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

priggish

adj → tugendhaft; (= snobbish) → hochnäsig

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

priggish

[ˈprɪgɪʃ] adj (person) → moralista; (behaviour, attitude) → moraleggiante

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

prig

(prig) noun

a person who is too satisfied with his/her own behaviour, beliefs etc.

ˈpriggish adjective

ˈpriggishly adverb

ˈpriggishness noun

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

He was rough, absent-minded, careless, and awkward, rather priggish, and not at all agreeable to a dainty, beauty-loving girl like Rose.

View in context

If I have any fault to find with New York society, it is on account of its formal and almost priggish quiet--the female voice being usually quite lost in it--thus leaving a void in the ear, not to say the heart, that is painful to endure.

View in context

Poor, wayward-hearted Collins leaned his head upon their crazy tables; priggish Benjamin Franklin; Savage, the wrong-headed, much troubled when he could afford any softer bed than a doorstep; young Bloomfield, "Bobby" Burns, Hogarth, Watts the engineer--the roll is endless.

View in context

"`Any little assistance,' he continued with the same queer, priggish accent, `that may obviate the necessity of my communicating with the family.'

View in context

He remembered her pretty face and priggish speeches with a sudden secret vividness which is all the bitterness of death.

View in context

How did we become such a priggish, prissy, purse-lipped, po-faced country?

Sue Carroll Column: BANNING CRAZE IS A JOKE

Jones' uber-Englishness lends a priggish air to James that makes his behavior even more cold and unpalatable than it need be, while Curless as his alter ego is encouraged to play up his schoolboy lustiness (do we really need the rude gesture accompanying the line "I think we could all use a stiff one" when James offers to get cocktails?).

PASSION PLAY

One particularly revealing scene in the movie involves Linney driving home after a romantic interlude with her priggish boss.

Playwright embraces director's reins

He said: "That's not being censorious or priggish - I hope I am neither - but you really do have to exercise a measure of judgment when you are receiving political donations.

JOWELL: PORN IS WRONG FOR US; Labour gift fury grows

There is no attempt to disguise the play's autobiographical origins and it is interesting that, for all Beatie's admiration for Ronnie, she inadvertently paints a pompous and priggish picture of him.

Roots of class resistance; Belgrade Theatre, Coventry

Moroccan director Farida Benlyazid uses the whiny voice of a priggish spinster from a "good family" (half-English, half-Spanish) to sketch 65 years of life in Tangiers in her adaptation of Angel Vazquez's sprawling novel.

The Wretched Life of Juanita Narboni

(We read that the saint 'was a priggish child who officiously insisted on washing other people's socks').

Rambling: A quiet day out