1923 G. McKnight Eng. Words iv. 61 Youthful impatience with anything or anybody that interferes with a good time is expressed by such names as kill-joy, frost, wet-blanket... To these may be added, from the language of girls,..poor potato,..cuckoo, old priss, old Jane.

1923 G. McKnight Eng. Words iv. 62 If she [sc. a girl] is unpopular, she is..a priss, a tomato, a chunk of lead, a drag.

1975 A. Bergman Hollywood & Le Vine (1976) ii. 23 I..was led to my room by an elderly priss named Roy. He told me I looked the rugged type.

1987 J. Wilcox Miss Undine's Living Room iii. 36 I never could stand her. She's such a priss.

2004 Hollywood Reporter 2 Mar. 84/2 She is a fussy priss looking for Mr. Right.

1938 W. A. White Puritan in Babylon xi. 119 Coolidge with his lips properly pursed..lay it on the big oak desk...The senator [sc. Coolidge] turned around and prissed out of the room.

1972 B. Hannah Geronimo Rex (1998) ii. 19 It did my old man no end of good to see the birds prissing around on his land.

1992 U. K. Le Guin in Ms. July 57/3 She was prissing up and down in front of the Butcher Shop as if she owned the place...What did her husband think he was doing letting her show herself on the street like that?

2004 A. Hodgman I saw Mommy ii. 20 Isn't it more important to keep up human connections than to priss around about cleanliness?

1971 C. McCullers Like That in Mortgaged Heart 64 In High School she never did like to priss up flirty and ride around in cars with girls and pick up the boys.

1986 Guardian (Nexis) 15 May Women have no time for fuss. They can't be bothered with prissing up.

1995 L. Davis Time to Depart iii. 10 Apart from the flash haircut, he did not trouble to priss himself up like a man of fashion.