prime

comparative primer · superlative primest

1. First in importance, degree, or rank.

   Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe.

   Synonyms: greatest, main, most important, primary, principal, top

2. First in time, order, or sequence.

   Both the English and French governments established prime meridians in their capitals.

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   I thought it lawful from my forme act, / And the ſame end ; ſtill watching to oppreſs / Iſrael’s oppreſſours : of what now I ſuffer / She was not the prime cauſe, but I my ſelf, / Who vanquiſht with a peal of words (O weakneſs !) / Gave up my fort of ſilence to a Woman.

   1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 21

   Better to clear prime forests, heave and thump / A league of street in summer solstice down, / Than hammer at this reverend gentlewoman.

   1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part III”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 52

   The process of recording a transaction in the accounts begins with an entry in what is termed a book of prime entry.

   2013, Ralph Denny, Accounts for Solicitors - Page 33

   Synonyms: earliest, first, original

3. First in excellence, quality, or value.

   This is a prime location for a bookstore.

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   Gemmen (says he), you all well know / The joy there is whene'er we meet; / It's what I call the primest go, / And rightly named, 'tis—'quite a treat,' […]

   1820, Thomas Moore, W. Simpkin, R. Marshall, Jack Randall's Diary of Proceedings at the House of Call for Genius

   "Is it very pleasant to be there, Bob?" / "Prime," said the turnkey.

   1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “The Child of the Marshalsea”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, 1st book (Poverty), page 50

   Average cost, 10d. to 18. per lb. for the primest parts.

   1861, Isabella Beeton, Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management

   Synonyms: excellent, top quality

4. laymathematicsHaving exactly two integral factors: itself and unity (1 in the case of integers).

   Thirteen is a prime number.

   Synonyms: indivisible

5. engineeringSuch that if it divides a product, it divides one of the multiplicands.
6. algebraHaving its complement closed under multiplication.
7. algebraSuch that the annihilator of any nonzero submodule is equal to the annihilator of the whole module.
8. Marked or distinguished by the prime symbol.
9. Early; blooming; being in the first stage.

   [...] His ſtarrie Helme unbuckl’d ſhew’d him prime / In Manhood where Youth ended ; by his ſide / As in a glittering Zodiac hung the Sword, / Satans dire dread, and in his hand the Spear.

   1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 245–248

10. obsoleteLecherous, lewd, lustful.

    It is impoſſible you ſhould ſee this, / Were they as prime as Goates, as hot as Monkies, / As ſalt as Wolues, in pride; and fooles as groſſe / As ignorance made drunke: [...]

    c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: […] N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 53

plural primes

1. historicalThe first hour of daylight; the first canonical hour.

   His larum bell might lowd and wyde be hard, When cause requyrd, but neuer out of time; Early and late it rong, at euening and at prime.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 314

2. ChristianityThe religious service appointed to this hour.
3. obsoleteThe early morning generally.

   They all as glad, as birdes of ioyous Pryme […]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 81

   Synonyms: early morning

4. archaicThe earliest stage of something.

   1645, Edmund Waller, “To a very young Lady” (earlier title: “To my young Lady Lucy Sidney”) in Poems, &c. Written upon Several Occasions, and to Several Persons, London: H. Herringman, 1686, p. 101, Hope waits upon the flowry prime,

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   To this end we see how quickly sundry artes Mechanical were found out in the very prime of the world.

   [1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], 3rd edition, London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, book II, page 69

5. The most active, thriving, or successful stage or period.

   Once upon a time you dressed so fine. You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?

   1965, Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone”

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   When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; When I behold the violet past prime, And sable curls all silver’d o'er with white;

   1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 12”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC

   Short were her Marriage-Joys; for in the Prime, / Of Youth, her Lord expir’d before his time: […]

   1700, [John] Dryden, “Sigismonda and Guiscardo, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 124

   None but foreigners, excluded by their religion from the cemeteries of the country, are deposited here […]. The far greater part had been cut off in their prime, by unexpected disease or fatal accident.

   1813, John Chetwode Eustace, chapter 10, in A Tour through Italy, volume 1, London: J. Mawman, pages 225–226

   1965 (November 3rd) "The Courtship of Elly" (Beverly Hillbillies s4e8) Granny Cousin Pearl says that folks back home are beginning to talk, asking about your spinster daughter. Now, Jed, let's not fool ourselves with city talk. You know and I know that prime is fourteen. Anything over that, and you're slidin' downhill.

   And it’s daunting because each segment has to tell a full, complete story in something like six minutes while doing justice to revered source material and including the non-stop laughs and genius gags that characterized The Simpsons in its god-like prime.

   2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)

   Synonyms: bloom, blossom, efflorescence, flower, flush, heyday, peak

6. The chief or best individual or part.

   Give him always of the prime; And but a little at a time.

   1726, Jonathan Swift, “To a Lady, who desired the author to write some verses upon her in the heroic style” in The Works of Dr. Jonathan Swift, London: W. Bowyer et al., Volume 7, p. 396, Give no more to ev’ry guest Than he’s able to digest

   Synonyms: choice, prize, quality, select

7. Something which is first in importance or rank: a prime defense company, mortgage lender, etc.

   The large primes are struggling to do things the way Anduril does, because they're publicly traded companies with an existing investor class that invested in them to be a certain type of company.

   2023 December 4, Can Palmer Luckey Reinvent the U.S. Defense Industry? - WSJ, The Wall Street Journal

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   I found just as we were fearful we would find that many of the big primes felt that this was a change of policy on the part of the U.S. Government to let the big fellows take care of it, and they were ready to cut back, and in many instances were cutting back[…]

   1966, United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Small Business, Hearings, Reports and Prints of the House Select Committee on Small Business, page 60

8. entertainmentThe first note or tone of a musical scale.
9. fencingThe first defensive position, with the sword hand held at head height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
10. algebraA prime element of a mathematical structure, particularly a prime number.

    3 is a prime.

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    Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.

    2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4

    Synonyms: prime number

11. card gamesA four-card hand containing one card of each suit in the game of primero; the opposite of a flush in poker.
12. backgammonA series of consecutive blocks. A prime of six prevents the opponent's pieces from passing.

    I'm threatening to build a prime here.

13. The symbol ′ used to indicate feet, minutes, derivation and other measures and mathematical operations.
14. obsoletechemistryAny number expressing the combining weight or equivalent of any particular element; so called because these numbers were respectively reduced to their lowest relative terms on the fixed standard of hydrogen as 1.
15. An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system.
16. obsoleteThe priming in a flintlock.

    […] he pull’d the Trigger, but Providence being pleas’d to preserve me for some other Purpose, the Cock snapp’d, and miss’d Fire. Whether the Prime was wet in the Pan, or by what other Miracle it was I escap’d his Fury, I cannot say […]

    1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, pages 95–96

17. abbreviationbroadcastingShort for prime lens.

    Tomlinson, Shawn M. (2015), Going Pro for $200 & How to Choose a Prime Lens, →ISBN, page 72: “By the time I shifted to my first autofocus film SLR with the Pentax PZ-10, primes were considered things of the past”

18. A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.

    Synonyms: white

19. human sciencesA stimulus which causes priming.

present singular third person primes · participle present priming · participle past primed · past primed

1. transitiveTo fill or prepare the chamber of a mechanism for its main work.

   You'll have to press this button twice to prime the fuel pump.

2. transitiveTo apply a coat of primer paint to.

   I need to prime these handrails before we can apply the finish coat.

   Synonyms: ground, undercoat

3. intransitiveobsoleteTo be renewed.

   Nights baſhfull Empreſſe, though ſhe often wayne, / As oft repents her darkneſſe ; primes againe ; / And with her circling Hornes does re-embrace / Her brothers wealth, and orbs her ſilver face.

   1634, Francis Quarles, “My Soule Hath Desired Thee in the Night”, in Emblemes, London: G. M., published 1635, book III, page 129

4. intransitiveTo serve as priming for the charge of a gun.
5. intransitiveTo work so that foaming occurs from too violent ebullition, which causes water to become mixed with, and be carried along with, the steam that is formed.

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   Although we took our eight bogies along to Whitstable at 60 m.p.h., and made a clean start from there, after Herne Bay the engine primed badly on Blacksole Bank and nearly stopped before we got over the top. Then we ran like the wind across the marshes with half-regulator, 30 per cent cut-off, and the engine blowing off.

   1959 April, P. Ransome-Wallis, “The Southern in Trouble on the Kent Coast”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 220

6. To apply priming to (a musket or cannon); to apply a primer to (a metallic cartridge).
7. To prepare; to make ready.

   The boys are primed for mischief.

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   “He’s priming himself,” Osborne whispered to Dobbin, and at length the hour and the carriage arrived for Vauxhall.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Dobbin of Ours”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 42

8. archaicTo instruct beforehand, as for an examination; to coach.

   to prime a witness

9. UKdialectalobsoleteTo trim or prune.

   to prime trees

10. mathematicsTo mark with a prime mark.

plural primes

1. cyclingAn intermediate sprint within a race, usually offering a prize and/or points.

   Most primes are won with gaps on the field; most sprints are in bunches.

   1997, Arnie Baker, Smart Cycling: Successful Training and Racing for Riders of All Levels

plural Primes

1. A surname.