Definitions

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

  • adjective Characterized by an inordinate interest in sex.
  • adjective Arousing or appealing to an inordinate interest in sex.
  • adjective Inordinately interested in matters of sex; lascivious.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Itching; having an eager desire or longing for something.
  • Inclined to lascivious thought; of an unclean habit of mind; sensual.

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

  • adjective Uneasy with desire; itching; especially, having a lascivious curiosity or propensity; lustful.

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

  • adjective Uneasy with desire; itching; especially, having a lascivious anxiety or propensity; lustful.
  • adjective Arousing or appealing to sexual desire.
  • adjective Curious, especially inappropriately so.

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

  • adjective characterized by lust

Etymologies

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

[Latin prūriēns, prūrient-, present participle of prūrīre, to yearn for, itch; see preus- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin prūriēns, present participle of prūriō ("itch")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word prurient.

Examples

  • I have watched you and your crew, how you preach up selfish ambition for divine charity and call prurient longings celestial love, while you blaspheme that very marriage from whose mysteries you borrow all your cant.

    The Saint's Tragedy Charles Kingsley 1847

  • Odd Iain that I have not heard the word "prurient" in many months yet both you and David Cameron use it on the same day about the same subject.

    How Not to Chase Ratings 2007

  • Here's my answer, and please don't be offended if I read some kind of prurient interest into your query.

    um... Holly 2005

  • Here's my answer, and please don't be offended if I read some kind of prurient interest into your query.

    Archive 2005-07-01 Holly 2005

  • There is nothing "prurient" about his enthusiastic interest; far from it, Di Filippo deals with such activities with warm good humor, engaging prose, and, when the story dictates, with love.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2003

  • Berlusconi's amoral business practices can never translate into financial success on a national scale, and his sexual ethics will only promote the kind of prurient, hypocritical society that Murdoch would appreciate.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2011

  • Berlusconi's amoral business practices can never translate into financial success on a national scale, and his sexual ethics will only promote the kind of prurient, hypocritical society that Murdoch would appreciate.

    Forbes.com: News 2011

  • (An interesting aside for those who enjoy etymology: the word "prurient" is derived from the same root as pruritus - it just refers to a different sort of "itch.")

    The Martha's Vineyard Times News Headlines 2009

  • First of all, Tennessee is remarkably lacking in any kind of prurient accommodations along its interstate, and secondly, on the first trip, we stopped and ate at places that served cold beer and roasted goat, and on the second trip we stopped to eat at places that didn't serve black people.

    Looky, Daddy! 2009

  • Michael Malone, director of photography at the San Jose Mercury News, said the call was an easy one and that his paper would never print such a "prurient" photo, which he said was "not something people need to see."

    unknown title 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "...at times the shock presents as an imploding clock -

    a Dali-esque reminder that if we invented Time (and

    hoo! we did) we could invent alternatives far more sublime -

    and truer to the prurient experience of ogling Eternity:

    close enough for us to sense its meat."

    October 27, 2007

  • That's a bizarre quote.

    October 27, 2007

  • it's from a poem entitled 'bubble baths and crystal meth'

    October 29, 2007

  • That's a bizarre title.

    October 30, 2007

  • TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests.

    (David Foster Wallace)

    June 26, 2008

  • "I didn't believe for a minute Bill was only concerned with my safety, but I didn't want to believe jealousy brought him to my window, or some kind of prurient curiosity."-Dead as a Doornail, by Charlaine Harris

    May 19, 2011