prude

plural prudes

1. A person who is or tries to be excessively proper, especially one who is easily offended by matters of a sexual nature.

   If you didn't go for Lila you're some kind of prissy old prude. If you did go for her you were some kind of dirty old man.

   1991, Robert M. Pirsig, Lila

   2 more examples

   He became shy. "I hadn't meant to tell you. It's not quite for a lady." For, like most men who are rather animal, he was intellectually a prude.

   1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part I, IV [Uniform ed., p. 62]

   And the best thing about her is that she's not a prude. In fact, she's something of a trollop: she jokes with everybody and laughs and makes fun of everything.

   Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 200

   Synonyms: prig, goody-goody, puritan, celibacist, erotophobe, antisexualist, bluenose, goody two shoes

comparative more prude · superlative most prude

1. Prudish.

plural Prudes

1. A surname.