primer
Pluralprimers
Pluralprimers
- 1
- 2USPRIM-ur/ˈpɹɪm.ɚ/UKPRY-muh/ˈpɹaɪ.mə(ɹ)/A simple book or text that teaches the basics of a subject.
Like the first easy lesson before the harder ones.
This primer explains how taxes work in plain language.
I read a short primer before starting the course.
Similarintroduction, guide, handbook
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- 3
- 4USPRIM-ur/ˈpɹɪm.ɚ/UKPRY-muh/ˈpɹaɪ.mə(ɹ)/A child's first book for learning to read, write, and spell.
Like the very first reading book you ever use.
The teacher handed each child a primer on the first day of school.
My grandmother learned her letters from an old primer.
Similarreader
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- 5A makeup layer you put on before foundation to help it go on smoothly.
Like a smooth base coat that helps makeup stay put.
She smoothed on a little primer before her foundation.
This primer helps makeup last all day.
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- 6One coat of the base paint that goes on before the top color.
Like the first thin layer before painting on top.
A single primer was enough to cover the old paint.
She let the first primer dry before adding another.
Similarundercoat
- 7A small molecule that helps start the copying of DNA.
Like a bookmark that shows where copying should begin.
The lab designed a primer to match the start of the gene.
Each primer attaches to one strand of the DNA.
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- 8A small pump or device that feeds gasoline into an engine to help it start.
Like giving an engine a small drink of gas to wake it up.
The pilot pushed the primer a few times before starting the engine.
On cold mornings, the old tractor needs the primer to get going.
- 9A natural scent signal that acts on the body's hormone system.
Like a hidden smell that slowly changes how the body works.
In bees, a primer keeps the workers from breeding.
A primer from the queen changes how the colony develops.
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- 10A person whose job is trimming and cutting back trees.
Like a barber, but for trees instead of hair.
The primer climbed the ladder to cut back the tall hedge.
Several primers worked through the orchard all afternoon.
Similarpruner
- 11USPRIM-ur/ˈpɹɪm.ɚ/UKPRY-muh/ˈpɹaɪ.mə(ɹ)/A prayer book for ordinary people, used for private worship long ago.
She carried a small primer to church and followed the prayers.
Many old primers were full of prayers to Mary and psalms for the dead.
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- 12USPRIM-ur/ˈpɹɪm.ɚ/UKPRY-muh/ˈpɹaɪ.mə(ɹ)/A small English prayer book for praying at home, based on the Book of Common Prayer.
Each household kept a primer for morning and evening prayers.
Tudor primers followed the new English prayer book.
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- 13A worker who prepared explosives so they would go off.
The primer fixed the fuse before everyone moved back.
Mine owners paid the primer well for such dangerous work.
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- 14A worker who puts the first coat of paint on wood or metal.
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- 15USPRIM-ur/ˈpɹɪm.ɚ/UKPRY-muh/ˈpɹaɪ.mə(ɹ)/A beginner class in a school, or a young child in that class.
The primers sat at the front, learning their letters.
She joined the primer at the age of six.
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- 16Happening first, before anything else.
In its primer years, the town had only a single street.
the primer English kings
1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-OlbionHere, primer means first or earliest.Note
- 17Most important, or first in rank.
He was the primer scholar at the university.
She held the primer place among the court poets.
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- 18First in place, at the very front.
The primer rank of soldiers led the charge.
Her name stood in the primer line of the list.
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Practice
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Origins
From Middle English primer, from Medieval Latin words meaning "prayer book." Such prayer books were later used to teach reading, so the word came to mean a schoolbook.
From the word "prime" plus the ending "-er."
From Anglo-Norman primer, meaning "first," from Latin prīmārius ("first").