prime

adjective primer · primest

1. First in importance, degree, or rank. Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe.

   Similar: greatest, main, most important, primary, principal, top

2. First in time, order, or sequence. Both the English and French governments established prime meridians in their capitals.

   Similar: earliest, first, original

3. First in excellence, quality, or value. This is a prime location for a bookstore.

   Similar: excellent, top quality

4. Having exactly two integral factors: itself and unity (1 in the case of integers). Thirteen is a prime number.

   Similar: indivisible

5. Such that if it divides a product, it divides one of the multiplicands.
6. of an ideal Having its complement closed under multiplication.
7. of a nonzero module Such that the annihilator of any nonzero submodule is equal to the annihilator of the whole module.
8. Marked or distinguished by the prime symbol.
9. 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.
10. obsolete 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: [...]

noun primes

1. 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.
2. The religious service appointed to this hour.
3. obsolete The early morning generally. They all as glad, as birdes of ioyous Pryme […]

   Similar: early morning

4. archaic 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.
5. 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;

   Similar: bloom, blossom, efflorescence, flower, flush, heyday, peak

6. The chief or best individual or part. Give him always of the prime; And but a little at a time.

   Similar: choice, prize, quality, select

7. Something which is first in importance or rank: a prime defense company, mortgage lender, etc. I found just as we were fearful we would find that many of the big primes felt that this was a change of policy on the part of the U.S. Government to let the big fellows take care of it, and they were ready to cut back, and in many instances were cutting back[…]
8. The first note or tone of a musical scale.
9. The first defensive position, with the sword hand held at head height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
10. A prime element of a mathematical structure, particularly a prime number. Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.

    Similar: prime number

11. A four-card hand containing one card of each suit in the game of primero; the opposite of a flush in poker.
12. A series of consecutive blocks. A prime of six prevents the opponent's pieces from passing. I'm threatening to build a prime here.
13. The symbol ′ used to indicate feet, minutes, derivation and other measures and mathematical operations.
14. obsolete 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.
15. An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system.
16. obsolete The priming in a flintlock. […] he pull’d the Trigger, but Providence being pleas’d to preserve me for some other Purpose, the Cock snapp’d, and miss’d Fire. Whether the Prime was wet in the Pan, or by what other Miracle it was I escap’d his Fury, I cannot say […]
17. abbreviation Short for prime 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”
18. A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.

    Similar: white

19. A stimulus which causes priming.

Similar: morning · Opposite: composite

verb primes · priming · primed

1. transitive 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.
2. transitive To apply a coat of primer paint to. I need to prime these handrails before we can apply the finish coat.

   Similar: ground, undercoat

3. intransitive, obsolete 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.
4. intransitive To serve as priming for the charge of a gun.
5. intransitive, of a steam boiler 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. Although we took our eight bogies along to Whitstable at 60 m.p.h., and made a clean start from there, after Herne Bay the engine primed badly on Blacksole Bank and nearly stopped before we got over the top. Then we ran like the wind across the marshes with half-regulator, 30 per cent cut-off, and t
6. To apply priming to (a musket or cannon); to apply a primer to (a metallic cartridge).
7. To prepare; to make ready. The boys are primed for mischief.
8. archaic To instruct beforehand, as for an examination; to coach. to prime a witness
9. UK, dialectal, obsolete To trim or prune. to prime trees
10. To mark with a prime mark.

noun primes

1. 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.

proper noun Primes

1. A surname.