prime
/pɹaɪ̯m/ verb C2- 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 apply a coat of primer paint to. · I need to prime these handrails before we can apply the finish coat.
- To serve as priming for the charge of a gun.
- 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 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 mark with a prime mark.
He/she/it primes · Past primed · Past participle primed · -ing form priming
Verb forms
- Base form
- prime
- He/she/it
- primes
- Past
- primed
- Past participle
- primed
- -ing form
- priming
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
“Yet,” continued the count, becoming each moment more absorbed in the anticipation of the dreadful sacrifice for the morrow, which Mercédès had accepted, “yet, it is impossible that so noble-minded a woman should thus through selfishness consent to my death when I am in the prime of life and strength; it is impossible that she can carry to such a point maternal love, or rather delirium.
It’s more than the Prime Minister gets.
He was more than six feet high, was in the prime of life, had small feet for his height, wore coarse, square-toed boots and smoked a Trichinopoly cigar.
I have never seen the Prime Minister so upset.
Other matches
Learn prime in real texts
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