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 1623. Webster, Devil's Law-Case, i. 2. The wafer-woman that prigs abroad With musk-melons and malakatoones.

1765. Rutherford, Letters, ii, ii. The frank buyer—cometh near to what the seller seeketh, useth at last to refer the difference to his will, and so cutteth off the course of mutual prigging.

d.1796. Burns, Briggs of Ayr., New Brig. Men wha grew wise priggin' owre hops an' raisins.

1800. Ramsay, Poems, i. 439. In comes a customer, looks big, Looks generous, and scorns to prig.

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, xxiv. Took the pains to prigg for her himself.

Prig-star, subs. phr. (old).—1. See Prig, subs. 1.

2. (old).—'A rival in love.'—B. E. (c.1696); Grose (1785).

1725. New Canting Dictionary, 'When my Dimber Dell I Courted,' ii. Her glaziers too are quite benighted Nor can any prig-star charm.

Prim, subs. (old).—1. A wanton: see Tart.

1509. Barclay, Ship of Fooles [Jamieson (1874), i. 250]. [Kington Oliphant (i. 379): 'The French had a phrase cheveux primes, delicate hair; a pryme means a paramour: our adjective prim has now a very different sense; but we still talk of a prime cut.']

c.1520. Mayd Emlyn [Hazlitt, Pop. Poet, iv. 84]. The yonge lusty prymme She coude byte and whyne And with a prety gynne Gyue her husbande an horne.

1548. Barclay, Fyfte Eclog. [Nares]. Aboute all London there was no propre prym, But long tyme had ben famylyer with hym.

2. (old).—'A very neat or affected person.'—B. E. (c.1696).

Prime, adj. (venery).—Sexually excited; proud (q.v. Pride).—Grose (1785).

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, iii. 3. Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, as salt as wolves in pride.

2. (colloquial).—(1) Eager; more than ready. Whence (2) = of the first quality (esp. butchers': as in prime joints, prime American, &c.); bang-up (q.v.).—Grose (1785). Hence, verb. = to fortify, to invigorate, to inspire, bring to the height of a situation: with liquor, information, counsel.

1637. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, 1. ii. Rob. Had you good sport i' your chase to-day? John. O prime!

1819. Vaux, Memoirs, s.v. Any person who is found an easy dupe to the designs of the family is said to be a prime flat.

1815. Moore, Tom Crib to Big Ben [Works (1854), 401]. Having conquered the prime one that milled us all round. Ibid. (1819), Tom Crib's Memorial What madness could impel So rum a Flat to face so prime a Swell. Ibid. (183[?]), Grand Dinner, &c. [Works (1854), 575]. Joints of poetry—all of the prime.

1821. Egan, Life in London, ii. ii. Tom and Jerry have just dropped in, quite prime for a lark.

1823. Hints for Oxford, 73. They [young Oxonians] for a determination when they sit down to table to have a row as soon as they are primed, and often before they rise they commence the work of destruction on glasses and plates and decanters.

1823. Byron, Don Juan, xi. 19. So prime, so swell, so nutty, and so knowing.

1827. Lytton, Pelham, lxxxiii. You are going to stall off the Daw's baby in prime twig.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xxx. Capital! said Mr. Benjamin Allen. Prime! ejaculated Mr. Bob Sawyer.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ii. 8. Your thorough French Courtier thinks it's prime fun to astonish a citizen.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, viii. Primed with such sage counsel, his lordship determined to lose no time in "opening the trenches." Ibid., xii. A fat little man, primed with port.

c.1886. Music Hall Song, 'They're all very Fine and Large.' They're all very fine and large, they're all very fresh and prime.