Mild, gentle; demure. Also: affected in manners, prim; reserved, unsocial.

figurative. Of persons, their habits, opinions, etc.: Excessively rigid or scrupulous in matters of conduct; narrow or over-precise in one's rules…

Reserved or restrained in manner or behaviour, esp. in a contrived or priggish way; affectedly modest, demure; primly silent, quiet; affectedly…

Of a person, an expression, feeling, etc.: consciously or affectedly strict or precise; stiffly formal and respectable; feeling or showing…

†(a) Of a person: with ears made prominent as a result of the hair being short and close-cropped (this being a style favoured by Puritan supporters…

Of a person: having the character of a prude; excessively or affectedly demure or modest; excessively concerned with sexual propriety. Of a thing…

Excessively precise in matters or learning, conduct, etc.; self-righteously correct; moralistic.

Prim, demure, formal; precise.

Prim, precise, exact; in depreciative use: Cut and dried, smug. rare.

Of, resembling, or characteristic of a young lady or schoolgirl; affectedly demure, prim, coy, squeamish, sentimental.

= missish, adj.

= perskeet, adj.

= missish, adj.

= missish, adj.

That has a tendency towards primness; rather prim.

Prim; affected. Originally in pruney and prismatic (or prismy): = prunes and prismy adj. at prune, n. 4b.

figurative (usually mildly depreciative). Scrupulously clean or pure, esp. to the point of being impersonal or characterless; free or purged of…

figurative (originally and chiefly U.S.). That is a Presbyterian bluenose (see bluenose, n. 3a). Hence, in extended use: priggish, puritanical…

Precise and over-particular; (affectedly) prim or prudish, esp. in a manner considered feminine or effeminate.

Prudish, fastidious; overly concerned with respectability.

= prissy, adj.

characterized by or suggestive of a prim or affected manner of speech or behaviour (cf. pruney and prismatic (or prismy) at pruney, adj. 1).