as in puritan
a person who is greatly concerned with seemly behavior and morality especially regarding sexual matters
the racy sitcom frequently satirizes exactly the sort of prude who would like to see the show taken off the air
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Recent Examples of prude
Give the Original ‘Twister’ a Spin Barbara Peeters is no prude.
—
Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 19 July 2024
Despite a handful of prudes trying their best to spoil the fun.
—Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 4 July 2024
Not that Fierstein suddenly became a prude.
—Vulture, 25 Apr. 2022
This does not necessarily me a narc or a prude.
—Eben Weiss, Outside Online, 9 Nov. 2022
Only a zealous prude could fully discount the entertainment in Oedipal friction, a source of narrative irony since, well, the myth of Oedipus.
—Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 19 Jan. 2023
Everyone supports her but her boyfriend, who initially accuses her of being a prude.
—Ilana Kaplan, Vulture, 27 Mar. 2022
Yet writers are eager to join in the jokes about the humorless prude who wants to stifle academic freedom, rather than trying to understand the whole story.
—Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 7 Dec. 2010
In life, there is little evidence that Dickens was, in the context of his time and place, a sexist or a prude.
—The New Yorker, 28 Feb. 2022
Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 19 July 2024
Despite a handful of prudes trying their best to spoil the fun.
—Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 4 July 2024
Not that Fierstein suddenly became a prude.
—Vulture, 25 Apr. 2022
This does not necessarily me a narc or a prude.
—Eben Weiss, Outside Online, 9 Nov. 2022
Only a zealous prude could fully discount the entertainment in Oedipal friction, a source of narrative irony since, well, the myth of Oedipus.
—Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 19 Jan. 2023
Everyone supports her but her boyfriend, who initially accuses her of being a prude.
—Ilana Kaplan, Vulture, 27 Mar. 2022
Yet writers are eager to join in the jokes about the humorless prude who wants to stifle academic freedom, rather than trying to understand the whole story.
—Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 7 Dec. 2010
In life, there is little evidence that Dickens was, in the context of his time and place, a sexist or a prude.
—The New Yorker, 28 Feb. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prude
Noun
-
Centuries after being burned at the stake, a witch named Jennifer (Veronica Lake) magically reappears and tries to torment the descendant of the puritan who led the charge against her — only to fall in love with him.—
Clark Collis,
EW.com,
18 Oct. 2024
-
Naysayers and scene puritans are too late to tear down Turnstile; the Baltimore band heard it all before its third album even dropped anyway.—
Pitchfork,
Pitchfork,
1 Oct. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Prude.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prude. Accessed 1 May. 2025.
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