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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 Note: In this sense the word is nearly superseded by primitive, except in the phrase prime cost.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



... chief in his stead. Then he would scour the country in a velvet mask and a peaked hat with a feather in it, carrying fire and desolation everywhere. A price would be set on his head, but he would snap his fingers in the face of the Prime Minister. He would rule his followers with an iron hand. But now he was in the midst of the mountains, and there were not the smallest signs of lawless folk, not even a gibbet with a skeleton hanging in chains to show where lawless folk had been. He sought high and low, but he ...
— Orientations • William Somerset Maugham
... dog, of loose morals and no religious ideas, who joined them in having fun, till the father came out and led them home. He would not have allowed them to play where it could have aggrieved any one, for a prime article of his religion was to respect the religious feelings of others, even when he thought them wrong. But he would not suffer the children to get the notion that they were guilty of any deadly crime if they happened to come short of the conventional standard of piety. ...
— A Boy's Town • W. D. Howells
... understand that the initiative to tax almost to extinction large automobiles, wedding dresses, champagne, pate de foie gras and enclosed parks, instead of gin and water, bank holiday outings and Virginia shag, is less likely to come from the Prime Minister class than from the class of dock labourers. There is an unconscious class war due to habit and insufficient thinking and insufficient sympathy that will play a large part in the distribution of the burthen of the State bankruptcy that is in progress, ...
— What is Coming? • H. G. Wells
... the appointment of able generals—Amherst and Wolfe—and Admiral Boscawen and others, and by adopting constitutional methods to develop the resources of the colonies for the war; and in two years the French power was crushed and ceased to exist in America. When the Crown, through its Prime Minister, made requisition to the Colonial Legislatures for money and men, as was the usage in England, the Colonial Legislatures responded by granting large sums of money, and sending into the field more than twenty thousand soldiers, ...
— The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 1 of 2 - From 1620-1816 • Egerton Ryerson
... superintendence of the flourishing community in the midst of which he has cast his lot. He may be almost regarded as the prime minister of the islands, in addition to which he has started an extensive boat-building business and a considerable trade in cocoa-nuts, etc., with the numerous islands of the Java Sea; also a saw-mill, and a forge, and a Sunday-school—in which last the pretty, humble-minded Winnie ...
— Blown to Bits - or, The Lonely Man of Rakata • Robert Michael Ballantyne


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