prig.

A person who displays self-satisfied superiority about correctness, morality, or respectable conduct.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• a self-righteous prig
• a pompous prig

On the page

The narrator called him a prig, though his objection saved the servants from a dangerous order.

She feared sounding like a prig when she asked whether the promise had been honest.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychological / character. Forms: Singular prig; plural prigs. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.