Chapter Priggish to Primipara of P by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

5. (Math.) To mark with a prime mark.

To prime a pump, to charge a pump with water, in order to put it in working condition.

Prime
(Prime), v. i.

1. To be renewed, or as at first. [Obs.]

Night's bashful empress, though she often wane,
As oft repeats her darkness, primes again.

Quarles.

2. To serve as priming for the charge of a gun.

3. 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; — said of a steam boiler.

Primely
(Prime"ly), adv.

1. At first; primarily. [Obs.] South.

2. In a prime manner; excellently.

Primeness
(Prime"ness), n.

1. The quality or state of being first.

2. The quality or state of being prime, or excellent.

Primer
(Prim"er) n. One who, or that which, primes; specifically, an instrument or device for priming; esp., a cap, tube, or water containing percussion powder or other compound for igniting a charge of gunpowder.

Primer
(Prim"er), a. [OF. primer, primier, premier, F. premier. See Premier.] First; original; primary. [Obs.] "The primer English kings." Drayton.

Primer fine (O. Eng. Law), a fine due to the king on the writ or commencement of a suit by fine. Blackstone. — Primer seizin (Feudal Law), the right of the king, when a tenant in capite died seized of a knight's fee, to receive of the heir, if of full age, one year's profits of the land if in possession, and half a year's profits if the land was in reversion expectant on an estate for life; — now abolished. Blackstone.

Primer
(Prim"er) n. [Originally, the book read at prime, the first canonical hour. LL. primae liber. See Prime, n., 4.]

1. Originally, a small prayer book for church service, containing the little office of the Virgin Mary; also, a work of elementary religious instruction.

The primer, or office of the Blessed Virgin.

Bp. Stillingfleet.

2. A small elementary book for teaching children to read; a reading or spelling book for a beginner.

As he sat in the school at his prymer.

Chaucer.

3. (Print.) A kind of type, of which there are two species; one, called long primer, intermediate in size between bourgeois and small pica [see Long primer]; the other, called great primer, larger than pica.

Great primer type.

Primero
(Pri*me"ro) n. [Sp. primera, fr. primero first, from L. primarius. See Premier.] A game at cards, now unknown. Shak.