priggish

[ prig-ish ]
See synonyms for: priggishpriggishness on Thesaurus.com

adjective
  1. fussy about trivialities or propriety, especially in a self-righteous or irritating manner:At the beginning of the book, Eustace is an unpleasant, unlikable, and priggish character.He never softened his message to please genteel tastes or priggish scruples.

Origin of priggish

1

Other words from priggish

  • prig·gish·ly, adverb
  • prig·gish·ness, noun
  • un·prig·gish, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use priggish in a sentence

  • I know that even I myself have occasionally, and by people who didn't know me of course, been charged with priggishness.

  • She wondered vaguely whether there was a single aspiration left that did not lead to the paths of priggishness.

    The Making of a Prig | Evelyn Sharp
  • If you had been a man no one would have detected your priggishness at all; at its worst it would have been called personality.

    The Making of a Prig | Evelyn Sharp
  • Avoid priggishness, which is detestable mental dry-rot; and flee from cant, the convenient domino of hypocrisy.

    A Speckled Bird | Augusta J. Evans Wilson
  • Little by little she arrived at the conclusion that refinement did not mean priggishness and that vulgarity was not humor.