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Prime   /praɪm/   Listen
adjective
Prime  adj.  
1.
First in order of time; original; primeval; primitive; primary. "Prime forests." "She was not the prime cause, but I myself." Note: In this sense the word is nearly superseded by primitive, except in the phrase prime cost.
2.
First in rank, degree, dignity, authority, or importance; as, prime minister. "Prime virtues."
3.
First in excellence; of highest quality; as, prime wheat; a prime quality of cloth.
4.
Early; blooming; being in the first stage. (Poetic) "His starry helm, unbuckled, showed him prime In manhood where youth ended."
5.
Lecherous; lustful; lewd. (Obs.)
6.
Marked or distinguished by a mark (´) called a prime mark. Note: In this dictionary the same typographic mark is used to indicate a weak accent in headwords, and minutes of a degree in angle measurements.
7.
(Math.)
(a)
Divisible by no number except itself or unity; as, 7 is a prime number.
(b)
Having no common factor; used with to; as, 12 is prime to 25.
Prime and ultimate ratio. (Math.). See Ultimate.
Prime conductor. (Elec.) See under Conductor.
Prime factor (Arith.), a factor which is a prime number.
Prime figure (Geom.), a figure which can not be divided into any other figure more simple than itself, as a triangle, a pyramid, etc.
Prime meridian (Astron.), the meridian from which longitude is reckoned, as the meridian of Greenwich or Washington.
Prime minister, the responsible head of a ministry or executive government; applied particularly to that of England.
Prime mover. (Mech.)
(a)
A natural agency applied by man to the production of power. Especially: Muscular force; the weight and motion of fluids, as water and air; heat obtained by chemical combination, and applied to produce changes in the volume and pressure of steam, air, or other fluids; and electricity, obtained by chemical action, and applied to produce alternation of magnetic force.
(b)
An engine, or machine, the object of which is to receive and modify force and motion as supplied by some natural source, and apply them to drive other machines; as a water wheel, a water-pressure engine, a steam engine, a hot-air engine, etc.
(c)
Fig.: The original or the most effective force in any undertaking or work; as, Clarkson was the prime mover in English antislavery agitation.
Prime number (Arith.), a number which is exactly divisible by no number except itself or unity, as 5, 7, 11.
Prime vertical (Astron.), the vertical circle which passes through the east and west points of the horizon.
Prime-vertical dial, a dial in which the shadow is projected on the plane of the prime vertical.
Prime-vertical transit instrument, a transit instrument the telescope of which revolves in the plane of the prime vertical, used for observing the transit of stars over this circle.


noun
Prime  n.  
1.
The first part; the earliest stage; the beginning or opening, as of the day, the year, etc.; hence, the dawn; the spring. "In the very prime of the world." "Hope waits upon the flowery prime."
2.
The spring of life; youth; hence, full health, strength, or beauty; perfection. "Cut off in their prime." "The prime of youth."
3.
That which is first in quantity; the most excellent portion; the best part. "Give him always of the prime."
4.
The morning; specifically (R. C. Ch.), the first canonical hour, succeeding to lauds. "Early and late it rung, at evening and at prime." Note: Originally, prime denoted the first quarter of the artificial day, reckoned from 6 a. m. to 6 p. m. Afterwards, it denoted the end of the first quarter, that is, 9 a. m. Specifically, it denoted the first canonical hour, as now. Chaucer uses it in all these senses, and also in the sense of def. 1, above. "They sleep till that it was pryme large."
5.
(Fencing) The first of the chief guards.
6.
(Chem.) Any number expressing the combining weight or equivalent of any particular element; so called because these numbers were respectively reduced to their lowest relative terms on the fixed standard of hydrogen as 1. (Obs. or Archaic)
7.
(Arith.) A prime number. See under Prime, a.
8.
An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system; denoted by (´). See 2d Inch, n., 1.
Prime of the moon, the new moon at its first appearance.


verb
Prime  v. t.  (past & past part. primed; pres. part. priming)  
1.
To apply priming to, as a musket or a cannon; to apply a primer to, as a metallic cartridge.
2.
To lay the first color, coating, or preparation upon (a surface), as in painting; as, to prime a canvas, a wall.
3.
To prepare; to make ready; to instruct beforehand; to post; to coach; as, to prime a witness; the boys are primed for mischief. (Colloq.)
4.
To trim or prune, as trees. (Obs. or Prov. Eng.)
5.
(Math.) To mark with a prime mark.
To prime a pump, to charge a pump with water, in order to put it in working condition.


Prime  v. i.  
1.
To be renewed, or as at first. (Obs.) "Night's bashful empress, though she often wane, As oft repeats her darkness, primes again."
2.
To serve as priming for the charge of a gun.
3.
To work so that foaming occurs from too violent ebullition, which causes water to become mixed with, and be carried along with, the steam that is formed; said of a steam boiler.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Prime" Quotes from Famous Books



... which familiarize us with the aboriginal negro in Africa, there is a good moral in the resultless life, which, after all its toils, hazards, and successes leaves the adventurer a stranded wreck in the prime of manhood. One half the natural capacity, employed industriously in lawful commerce, would have made the captain comfortable and independent. Nor is there much to attract in the singular abnegation of civilized happiness in a slaver's career. We may not be surprised, that such an animal ...
— Captain Canot - or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver • Brantz Mayer
... should live ten times as long as a dog, and a turtle be almost immortal. In the case of man, the operation has overshot its mark: men do not live long enough: they are, for all the purposes of high civilization, mere children when they die; and our Prime Ministers, though rated as mature, divide their time between the golf course and the Treasury Bench in parliament. Presumably, however, the same power that made this mistake can remedy it. If on opportunist grounds Man now fixes the term of his life at three score and ten years, he can equally fix ...
— Back to Methuselah • George Bernard Shaw
... nook or corner as readily as this was found by Tim. It had, indeed, been a fearful amusement of Tim and other Hintock lads—especially those who had a dim sense of becoming renowned poachers when they reached their prime—to drag out this trap from its hiding, set it, and throw it with billets of wood, which were penetrated by the teeth to the depth of near ...
— The Woodlanders • Thomas Hardy
... its death-blow from Cromwell, and perished with the deposing of James II.; and there has been no resurrection. To the Whig rule we owe the transference of political power from the Crown to Parliament. Once it is manifest that Parliament is the instrument of authority, that the Prime Minister and his colleagues rule only by the permission and with the approval of the House of Commons, and that the House of Commons itself is chosen by a certain number of electors to represent the nation, then it is plain that the real sovereignty is in the electors who choose the House of Commons. ...
— The Rise of the Democracy • Joseph Clayton
... me urge to rest rather than action," she wrote—exactly what Miss Anthony had feared. She was now in her seventy-seventh year and naturally her children desired that she should give up public work; but Miss Anthony knew that inaction meant rust and decay and, as her fellow-worker was in the prime of mental vigor, she was determined that the world should continue to profit by it. Her address this year was entitled "The Solitude of Self," considered by many one of ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper


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