priggish

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for priggish
Adjective
  • The normally staid Ghormans are inflamed when the Empire begins building a massive geometric edifice in the center of their elegantly Art Nouveau-ish capital city of Palmo.
    Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 21 May 2025
  • In the more staid version of this movie that might have been made decades ago, that would have been the core of the drama.
    Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 16 May 2025
Adjective
  • The only real originality in the accounts of Jesus’ virgin birth is their distinctly Jewish and prudish tone, with the impregnation dignified and at arm’s length rather than represented, as in the Hellenistic myths, as a shower of gold or the lovemaking of an amorous swan.
    Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2025
  • The Comstock Act is a relic, not just of a more prudish era in American history, but of an age when the sort of individual rights that modern Americans take for granted effectively did not exist.
    Ian Millhiser, Vox, 27 May 2024
Adjective
  • While many fragrance houses feel unapproachable—too old, too stuffy, too expensive—Tom Ford’s have a personableness to them.
    Kiana Murden, Vogue, 30 May 2025
  • Then again, the same could be said for all of MLB, which is considered stuffier than the NFL and NBA.
    Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 13 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • First, the movement of women telling their stories of victimization online was dismissed by many as a toxic importation of puritanical American mores that were unnecessary in a culture of seduction and harmony between the sexes.
    Catherine Porter, New York Times, 15 May 2025
  • Over the past few years, generational warfare has only ramped up—so much so that it’s become boring to even reference: Gen Z hating on millennials for being cringe, millennials hating on Gen Z for being puritanical, and everyone hating on boomers for being, well, boomers.
    Daisy Jones, Vogue, 3 May 2025
Adjective
  • The show found its humor in contrasting the more straitlaced nature of the teens with Moore’s unique and occasionally off-the-wall, free-spirited advice.
    James Mercadante, EW.com, 6 May 2025
  • Meanwhile, Scully’s pointedly straitlaced manner proved more alluring to viewers than anyone had expected.
    Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 29 July 2024
Adjective
  • During the Victorian era, luminaries such as Wilkie Collins and Alfred, Lord Tennyson paid tribute to Franklin, eulogizing him as a martyr who sacrificed himself for the cause of scientific advancement.
    Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 May 2025
  • Along the way, the orchid became the subject of scientific speculation (including by Charles Darwin), a fetish in the Victorian era’s burgeoning consumer culture, and an example of the excesses of imperialist extraction.
    The New Yorker, New Yorker, 19 May 2025
Adjective
  • Sure, Wimbledon is the Major most associated with prim and proper antiquated rituals.
    Merlisa Lawrence Corbett, Forbes.com, 22 May 2025
  • Her sartorial strategy was clear: midi-skirts and dresses that were elegant, prim and demure, worn with headbands for a youthful earnestness.
    Leah Dolan, CNN Money, 22 May 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Priggish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/priggish. Accessed 3 Jun. 2025.

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