primed

Verb

prime (third-person singular simple present primes, present participle priming, simple past and past participle primed)

1. (transitive) To fill or prepare the chamber of a mechanism for its main work.
   • You'll have to press this button twice to prime the fuel pump.
2. (transitive) To apply a coat of primer paint to.
   • I need to prime these handrails before we can apply the finish coat.

   Synonyms:

   ground, undercoat

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To be renewed.
   • Nights baſhfull Empreſſe, though ſhe often wayne, / As oft repents her darkneſſe ; primes againe ; / And with her circling Hornes does re-embrace / Her brothers wealth, and orbs her ſilver face.1634, Francis Quarles, “My Soule Hath Desired Thee in the Night”, in Emblemes, London: G. M., published 1635, book III, page 129
4. (intransitive) To serve as priming for the charge of a gun.
5. (intransitive) 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.
   • Although we took our eight bogies along to Whitstable at 60 m.p.h., and made a clean start from there, after Herne Bay the engine primed badly on Blacksole Bank and nearly stopped before we got over the top. Then we ran like the wind across the marshes with half-regulator, 30 per cent cut-off, and...1959 April, P. Ransome-Wallis, “The Southern in Trouble on the Kent Coast”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 220
6. To apply priming to (a musket or cannon); to apply a primer to (a metallic cartridge).

See all 40 meanings of prime