priggish
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
1Other 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.
The Travelling Companions | F. AnsteyShe wondered vaguely whether there was a single aspiration left that did not lead to the paths of priggishness.
The Making of a Prig | Evelyn SharpIf 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 SharpAvoid priggishness, which is detestable mental dry-rot; and flee from cant, the convenient domino of hypocrisy.
A Speckled Bird | Augusta J. Evans WilsonLittle by little she arrived at the conclusion that refinement did not mean priggishness and that vulgarity was not humor.
Molly Brown's Freshman Days | Nell Speed
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