Sekirov Dictionary

prime

/pɹaɪ̯m/

adjective 10
noun 19
verb 10
/pɹiːm/ noun 1
forms 5
phrases 3

adjective10

•
main, or more important than all the others
- Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe.
•
First in excellence, quality, or value.
- This is a prime location for a bookstore.
•
Having exactly two integral factors: itself and unity (1 in the case of integers).
- Thirteen is a prime number.
Such that if it divides a product, it divides one of the multiplicands.
Having its complement closed under multiplication.
•
First in time, order, or sequence.
- Both the English and French governments established prime meridians in their capitals.
•
Early; blooming; being in the first stage.
- [...] His starrie Helme unbuckl’d shew’d him prime / In Manhood where Youth ended ; by his side / As in a glittering Zodiac hung the Sword, / Satans dire dread, and in his hand the Spear. — 1667
Marked or distinguished by the prime symbol.
Such that the annihilator of any nonzero submodule is equal to the annihilator of the whole module.
•
(no longer used) Lecherous, lewd, lustful.
- It is impossible you should see this, / Were they as prime as Goates, as hot as Monkies, / As salt as Wolues, in pride; and fooles as grosse / As ignorance made drunke: [...] — 1603

noun19

•
The most active, thriving, or successful stage or period.
- When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; When I behold the violet past prime, And sable curls all silver’d o'er with white — 1609
•
A prime element of a mathematical structure, particularly a prime number.
- 3 is a prime.
The symbol ′ used to indicate feet, minutes, derivation and other measures and mathematical operations.
•
The chief or best individual or part.
- Give him always of the prime; And but a little at a time. — 1726
•
Something which is first in importance or rank: a prime defense company, mortgage lender, etc.
- The large primes are struggling to do things the way Anduril does, because they're publicly traded companies with an existing investor class that invested in them to be a certain type of company. — 2023
A stimulus which causes priming.
•
(historical) The first hour of daylight; the first canonical hour.
- His larum bell might lowd and wyde be hard, When cause requyrd, but neuer out of time; Early and late it rong, at euening and at prime. — 1590
The religious service appointed to this hour.
The first defensive position, with the sword hand held at head height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
The first note or tone of a musical scale.
•
Contraction of prime lens, a film lens.
- Tomlinson, Shawn M. (2015), Going Pro for $200 & How to Choose a Prime Lens, →ISBN, page 72: “By the time I shifted to my first autofocus film SLR with the Pentax PZ-10, primes were considered things of the past”
•
A series of consecutive blocks. A prime of six prevents the opponent's pieces from passing.
- I'm threatening to build a prime here.
An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system.
A four-card hand containing one card of each suit in the game of primero; the opposite of a flush in poker.
A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.
•
(no longer used) The early morning generally.
- They all as glad, as birdes of ioyous Pryme […] — 1590
•
(no longer used) The earliest stage of something.
- To this end we see how quickly sundry artes Mechanical were found out in the very prime of the world. — 1594
(no longer used) 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.
(no longer used) The priming in a flintlock.

verb10

•
To fill or prepare the chamber of a mechanism for its main work.
- You'll have to press this button twice to prime the fuel pump.
To serve as priming for the charge of a gun.
To apply priming to (a musket or cannon); to apply a primer to (a metallic cartridge).
•
To prepare; to make ready.
- The boys are primed for mischief.
•
To apply a coat of primer paint to.
- I need to prime these handrails before we can apply the finish coat.
To mark with a prime mark.
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.
To instruct beforehand, as for an examination; to coach.
•
(no longer used) To be renewed.
- Nights bashfull Empresse, though she often wayne, / As oft repents her darknesse ; primes againe ; / And with her circling Hornes does re-embrace / Her brothers wealth, and orbs her silver face. — 1634
•
(dialect, no longer used) To trim or prune.
- to prime trees

prime

/pɹiːm/

noun1

•
An intermediate sprint within a race, usually offering a prize and/or points.
- Most primes are won with gaps on the field; most sprints are in bunches. — 1997

forms

primed · priming · primes · primer · primest

Phrases with prime

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