Definitions

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

  • adjective Feeling pleasurable satisfaction over an act, possession, quality, or relationship by which one measures one's stature or self-worth.
  • adjective Occasioning or being a reason for pride.
  • adjective Feeling or showing justifiable self-respect.
  • adjective Filled with or showing excessive self-esteem.
  • adjective Of great dignity; honored.
  • adjective Majestic; magnificent.
  • adjective Spirited. Used of an animal.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To be proud or haughty.
  • To be full of spirit or animation; be gay.
  • To be excited by sexual desire.
  • To make or render proud.
  • Having or cherishing a high opinion of one's own merits; showing great or lofty self-esteem; expecting great deference or consideration; haughty; full of pride.
  • Having a worthy and becoming sense of what is due to one's self; self-respecting: as, too proud to beg.
  • Priding one's self; having high satisfaction; elated: as, proud to serve a cause.
  • Proceeding from pride; daring; dignified.
  • Of fearless or untamable spirit; full of vigor or mettle.
  • Giving reason or occasion for pride, congratulation, or boasting; suggesting or exciting pride; ostentatious; grand; gorgeous; magnificent.
  • Full; high; swelled.
  • Stately, noble. See references under pride.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Feeling or manifesting pride, in a good or bad sense.
  • adjective Possessing or showing too great self-esteem; overrating one's excellences; hence, arrogant; haughty; lordly; presumptuous.
  • adjective Having a feeling of high self-respect or self-esteem; exulting (in); elated; -- often with of.
  • adjective Giving reason or occasion for pride or self-gratulation; worthy of admiration; grand; splendid; magnificent; admirable; ostentatious.
  • adjective Excited by sexual desire; -- applied particularly to the females of some animals.
  • adjective (Med.) a fungous growth or excrescence of granulations resembling flesh, in a wound or ulcer.

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

  • adjective Gratified; feeling honoured (by something); feeling satisfied or happy about a fact or event.
  • adjective Possessed of a due sense of what one is worth or deserves.
  • adjective Having too high an opinion of oneself; arrogant, supercilious.
  • adjective Generating a sense of pride; being a cause for pride.
  • adjective obsolete Brave, valiant; gallant.
  • adjective Standing out or raised; swollen.
  • adjective obsolete Excited by sexual desire; (of female animals) in heat.
  • adjective Happy, usually used with a sense of honor, as in "I'm so proud to have you in our town." But occasionally just plain happy as in "I'm proud to see gas prices down." This is a widespread colloquial usage in the southern United States.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having or displaying great dignity or nobility
  • adjective feeling self-respect or pleasure in something by which you measure your self-worth; or being a reason for pride

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English prūd, from Old French prou, prud, brave, virtuous, oblique case of prouz, from Vulgar Latin *prōdis, from Late Latin prōde, advantageous, from Latin prōdesse, to be good : prōd-, for (variant of prō-, with d on the model of red-, prevocalic variant of re-, back, again; see pro–) + esse, to be; see es- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English proud, prout, prut, from Old English prūd, prūt ("proud, arrogant, haughty"; compare Old English prȳtung ("pride"); prȳde, prȳte ("pride")). Cognate with Old Norse prúðr ("gallant, brave, magnificent, stately, handsome, fine"; > Icelandic prúður, Middle Swedish prudh, Danish prud), of unknown origin. Perhaps from Vulgar Latin, from Old French prod, prud ("brave, gallant"; > French preux), from an assumed Late Latin *prōdis, related to Latin prōdesse ("to be of value"); however, the Old English umlaut derivatives prȳte, prȳtian, etc. suggest the word may be older and possibly native. See also pride.

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Examples

  • I am proud of my position, because … proud of being … proud…

    Chapter XXII. Part III 1917

  • For herself she was humbled; but she was proud of him, —proud that in a cause of compassion and honour he had been able to get the better of himself.

    Chapter LII 1917

  • _thought_ 'gentlemen;' so general is this desire amongst the youth of this proud money making nation, that thousands upon thousands of them are, at this moment, in a state which may end in starvation; not so much because they are too _lazy_ to earn their bread, as because they are too _proud_!

    The Young Man's Guide William A. Alcott 1824

  • After a childhood spent "surveiling" the protected "legitimate" family, a term proud Gwen hates, rebellious teenaged Dana inserts herself into her half-sister's life, with tragic results.

    StarTribune.com rss feed 2011

  • After a childhood spent "surveiling" the protected "legitimate" family, a term proud Gwen hates, rebellious teenaged Dana inserts herself into her half-sister's life, with tragic results.

    StarTribune.com rss feed 2011

  • Badu has all the freakiness, ambition, and relevance that bigger or fresher names get credited for, and is one of the few "neo-soul" artists still doing the label proud, but doesn't get the same hype.

    Slate Magazine Ann Powers 2011

  • Just as he was finishing the second window, Emma traced inside the scant light of the bedroom and smiled softly at him, her expression proud.

    Kresley Cole Immortals After Dark: The Clan MacRieve Kresley Cole 2010

  • Cecilia sailed gracefully past, her expression proud, unruffled.

    A Hopeless Romantic Harriet Evans 2006

  • Cecilia sailed gracefully past, her expression proud, unruffled.

    A Hopeless Romantic Harriet Evans 2006

  • Cecilia sailed gracefully past, her expression proud, unruffled.

    A Hopeless Romantic Harriet Evans 2006

Comments

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  • A peacock is a proud animal.

    May 14, 2009

  • stolz

    feeling pleasurable satisfaction over an act

    May 14, 2009

  • feeling satisfied to do

    May 14, 2009

  • I'm proud of my best friend.

    May 14, 2009

  • *feeling pleased and satisfied about something we own or we do

    *having respect for ourselves

    *self-esteem

    *confidence

    May 14, 2009

  • "These seedlings need to be planted just proud of ground level."

    - presenter, Gardening Australia (tv show), 21 July 2012.

    July 21, 2012