Prig vs Brig - What's the difference?
prig | brig |
A person who demonstrates an exaggerated conformity or propriety, especially in an irritatingly arrogant or smug manner.
(British, archaic) A petty thief or pickpocket
* William Topaz McGonagall, The Christmas Goose
(archaic) A conceited dandy; a fop.
(Scotland) To haggle or argue over price.
(slang, dated) To filch or steal.
(nautical) A two-masted vessel, square-rigged on both foremast and mainmast
(US) A jail or guardhouse, especially in a naval military prison or jail on a ship, navy base, or (in fiction) spacecraft.
As nouns the difference between prig and brig
is that prig is a person who demonstrates an exaggerated conformity or propriety, especially in an irritatingly arrogant or smug manner while brig is force, power.As a verb prig
is (scotland) to haggle or argue over price.prig
English
Etymology 1
Of origin.Noun
(en noun)- But a policeman captur'd the naughty boy, / And gave the goose to Smiggs, / And said he was greatly bother'd / By a set of juvenile prigs .
Synonyms
* (person exhibiting excess propriety) prudeDerived terms
* priggishEtymology 2
Of origin.Verb
- to prig a handkerchief