Prurient
adj ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Uneasy with desire; itching; especially, having a lascivious anxiety or propensity; lustful.
"We know that at that period certain indecencies in the dresses, even of those who were considered as the most refined and polished men of the age, were not only tolerated but ostentatiously displayed, and every sort of device that the most prurient mind could think of was had recourse to, to attract attention or excite a smile."
- 2 Arousing or appealing to sexual desire.
"[…]nor is it more prurient or lascivious than many productions to be found in a circulating library."
- 3 Curious, especially inappropriately so.
"Had she known that prurient anecdotes, breaches of confidence, scandalous facts, and cruel observations, were intended to constitute the matter and to enhance the price, her very heart would have broken under the affliction such a disgraceful proceeding exhibited,..."
- 1 characterized by lust wordnet
Example
More examples"Much to my dismay, Mary came to the party wearing a prurient dress."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin prūriēns, present participle of prūriō (“itch”).
Related phrases
More for "prurient"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.