Chapter Prestige to Primrose of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Prick-eared So the Roundheads were called, because they covered their heads with a black skull-cap drawn down tight, leaving the ears exposed.

Prick the Garter (See Fast And Loose.)

Pride, meaning ostentation, finery, or that which persons are proud of. Spenser talks of "lofty treas yclad in summer pride" (verdure). Pope, of a "sword whose ivory sheath [was] inwrought with envious pride" (ornamentation); and in this sense the word is used by Jacques in that celebrted passage—

“Why, who cries out on pride [dress]
That can therein tax any private party?
What woman in the city do I name
When that I say `the city woman bears
The cost of princes on unworthy shoulders'?
... What is he of baser function
That says his bravery [finery] is not of my cost?”
Shakespeare: As You Like It, ii. 7.

   Fly pride, says the peacock, proverbial for pride. (Shakespeare: Comedy of Errors, iv. 3.) The pot calling the kettle “black face.”
   Sir Pride. First a drayman, then a colonel in the Parliamentary army. (Butler: Hudibras.)

Pride of the Morning That early mist or shower which promises a fine day. The Morning is too proud to come out in her glory all at once- or the proud beauty being thwarted weeps and pouts awhile. Keble uses the phrase in a different sense when he says:-

“Pride of the dewy Morning,
The swain's experienced eye
From thee takes timely warning,
Nor trusts the gorgeous sky.”
Keble: 25th Sunday after Trinity.

Pride's Purge The Long Parliament, not proving itself willing to condemn Charles I., was purged of its unruly members by Colonel Pride, who entered the House with two regiments of soldiers, imprisoned sixty members, drove one hundred and sixty out into the streets, and left only sixty of the most complaisant.

Pridwen The name of Prince Arthur's shield.

“He henge an his sweore [neck] acne sceld deore,
His nome on Brutisc [in British] Pridwen ihaten [called].”
Layamon: Brut (twelfth century)

Pridwin Same as pridwen. This shield had represented on it a picture of the Virgin.

“The temper of his sword, the tried `Excaliber,'
The bigness and the length of `Rone,' his noble spear,
With `Pridwin,' his great shield, and what the proof could bear”
Drayton.

Priest ... Knight I would rather walk with Sir Priest than Sir Knight. I prefer peace to strife.

Priest of the Blue-bag A barrister. A blue-bag is a cant name for a barrister. (See Barrister's Bag.)

“He [O'Flynn] had twice pleaded his own cause, without help of attorney, and showed himself as practised in every law quibble ... as if he had been a regularly ordained priest of the blue bag.”- C. Kingsley: Alton Locke, chap. xx.

Prig A knavish beggar in the Beggar's Bush, by Beaumont and Fletcher.
   Prig. A coxcomb, a conceited person. Probably the Anglo-Saxon pryt or pryd.
   Prig. To filch or steal. Also a pick-pocket or thief. The clown calls Autolycus a “prig that haunts wakes, fairs, and bear - baitings.” (Shakespeare: Winter's Tale, iv. 3.)
   In Scotch, to prig means to cheapen, or haggle over the price asked; priggin means cheapening.

Prima Donna (Italian). A first-class lady; applied to public singers.

Prima Facie (Latin). At first sight. A prima facie case is a case or statement which, without minute examination into its merits, seems plausible and correct.
   It would be easy to make out a strong prima facie case, but I should advise the more cautious policy of audi alteram partem.

Primary Colours (See Colours.)

Prime (l syl.). In the Catholic Church the first canonical hour after lauds. Milton terms sunrise “that sweet hour of prime.” (Paradise Lost, bk. v. 170.)

“All night long ... came the sound of chanting ... as the monks sang the service of matins, lauds, and prime.”- Shorthouse: John Inglesant, chap. 1. p. 10.

Primed Full and ready to deliver a speech. We