priorities

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of priority.

   The new manager reshuffled the team's priorities within her first week.

   Budget cuts forced the city to rethink its spending priorities.

   Note

   The plural lives mostly in the goal meaning of priority: a person's or an organization's priorities are the aims they have ranked against one another. It is a regular plural and pairs naturally with verbs of ordering, such as set, rethink and reshuffle. It is also the word behind the ironic one-word retort, which mocks someone whose ranking seems upside down.

2. 2
   interjectioncolloquial

   An unfriendly remark that someone is acting on the wrong thing, or in the wrong order, instead of what should come first.

   He's fussing over the car's paint while the engine is failing. Get your priorities straight.

   Get your priorities straight; the report is due tomorrow and you're redecorating your desk.

   Note

   A one-word verdict delivered after the story. The speaker first describes the misplaced choice, such as finishing a game while the house burns or buying a fancy teacup instead of paying rent. Then the bare word, often after a pause or a hesitant "Well, I mean…", does the judging. Said alone it sounds dry and ironic. The fuller "get your priorities straight" is the direct reproach.

   He skipped the job interview to queue for concert tickets. Priorities.

   You fixed your hair but forgot your passport? Well... priorities.

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