Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who is prissy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun informal A prissy person
  • verb To dress or behave in a prissy manner

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Back-formation from prissy (analyzed as priss + -y ("(manner)")), noun attested 1923.

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Examples

  • In the series, the southerners are portrayed as wussy appeasers and the South Carolina representative, Edward Rutledge, is especially played as a priss which is somehow gratifying after campaigns in which the South is portrayed as the home of martial and American values.

    Matt Cooper: John Adams: Good for McCain -- and Kerry, Dukakis 2008

  • It was no wonder that even Miss Pole Stuck Up Her Ass, priss of a boss of hers wanted Rickie Ross so bad.

    I.O.U. Elle 2011

  • I have to admit I am a bit of a priss when it comes to swearing and profanities.

    Writing Rules « Write Anything 2009

  • The movie turns broad and slightly smarmy when it portrays the conventioneers as hapless Babbitts, and overstresses Tim's status as a hick or, worse still, a priss.

    'Gnomeo': A Bard's Garden of Delights Joe Morgenstern 2011

  • The words he spoke were gone forever, a memory only to those who heard them, never to fly back into his face after going viral on him, or bollocks-up his career prospects due to their nonconformity to the range of acceptable ideas, and he was well beyond the reach of Bowdler and the priss who Gribbenized Huckleberry Finn.

    Eddie's Story TimChambers 2011

  • It was no wonder that even Miss Pole Stuck Up Her Ass, priss of a boss of hers wanted Rickie Ross so bad.

    I.O.U. Elle 2011

  • The words he spoke were gone forever, a memory only to those who heard them, never to fly back into his face after going viral on him, or bollocks-up his career prospects due to their nonconformity to the range of acceptable ideas, and he was well beyond the reach of Bowdler and the priss who Gribbenized Huckleberry Finn.

    Eddie's Story TimChambers 2011

  • Her perfect priss of a big sister, her married big sister, had a boyfriend!

    Fly Away Home Jennifer Weiner 2010

  • My inner priss reared her ugly head, chastising them with Oh, come on!

    If Your Child Farts In A Forest, And You Laugh, Will Anybody Hear It And Judge You? | Her Bad Mother 2008

  • Her perfect priss of a big sister, her married big sister, had a boyfriend!

    Fly Away Home Jennifer Weiner 2010

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