Primer
['praɪmə] or ['praɪmɚ]
Definition
(n.) One who, or that which, primes
(n.) an instrument or device for priming; esp., a cap, tube, or water containing percussion powder or other compound for igniting a charge of gunpowder.
(a.) First; original; primary.
(n.) Originally, a small prayer book for church service, containing the little office of the Virgin Mary; also, a work of elementary religious instruction.
(n.) A small elementary book for teaching children to read; a reading or spelling book for a beginner.
(n.) 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.
Checked by Chiquita
Definition
n. a first book: a work of elementary religious instruction: a first reading-book: an elementary introduction to any subject: a kind of type of two species long-primer (10 point) and great-primer (18 point).
Edited by Estelle
Examples
- Yes, if you are good, and love your book, as the boys in the primer are told to do, said Meg, smiling. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- Among the other books were a primer, some child's readers, numerous picture books, and a great dictionary. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- It was a folio, _pro patria_ size, in pica, with long-primer notes. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- If you were going to use powder, ball and percussion primer, to get your game, why not put them all into a neat, handy, gas-tight case? Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The primer case is automatically ejected by the opening of the breech mechanism. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- You edge away a little, and no wonder, but the girl who handles it shows no fear as she deftly but carefully presses it into molds which separate it into the proper sizes for primers. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Primers were tried in different forms called detonators, but the familiar little copper cap was the most popular. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
Edited by Daniel