PRIMNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does primness mean? 

• PRIMNESS (noun)
  The noun PRIMNESS has 2 senses:

1. excessive or affected modesty

2. exaggerated and arrogant properness

  Familiarity information: PRIMNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRIMNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Excessive or affected modesty

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

Grundyism; primness; prudery; prudishness

Hypernyms ("primness" is a kind of...):

modestness; modesty (freedom from vanity or conceit)

Derivation:

prim (exaggeratedly proper)

prim (affectedly dainty or refined)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Exaggerated and arrogant properness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

priggishness; primness

Hypernyms ("primness" is a kind of...):

correctitude; properness; propriety (correct or appropriate behavior)

Derivation:

prim (exaggeratedly proper)

 Context examples 

I was brought up in the freer, less conventional atmosphere of South Australia, and this English life, with its proprieties and its primness, is not congenial to me.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

An anomaly which often struck me in the character of my friend Sherlock Holmes was that, although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and most methodical of mankind, and although also he affected a certain quiet primness of dress, he was none the less in his personal habits one of the most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)