proper

adj

1. Suitable.

   “the proper time to plant potatoes”

   “The proper study of mankind is man.”

   “One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.”

2. Suitable.

   “a very proper young lady”

   “This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking.[…]Indeed, all his features were in large mold, like the man himself, as though he had come from a day when skin garments made the proper garb of men.”

   “The Nippy became a national icon, symbolic of the girl next door, always approachable and proper; […]”

3. Suitable.
4. Suitable.
5. Suitable.
6. Suitable.
7. Suitable.
8. Possessed, related.
9. Possessed, related.

   “They have a proper saint almost for every peculiar infirmity: for poison, gouts, agues […].”

   “1829, James Marsh, Preliminary Essay to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Aids to Reflection those higher and peculiar attributes […] which constitute our proper humanity”

10. (postpositional, usually)Possessed, related.

    “These are divided into two great families, the vipers proper (Viperidae) and the pit-vipers (Crotalidae).”

    “Siberia, though it stands outside the territorial confines of Russia proper, constitutes an essentially component part […]. Outer Mongolia, [so called] to distinguish it from Inner Mongolia, which lies nearer to China proper, revolted and declared its independence.”

    “Hence, this border is still blurred, raising the question whether traumatic life events induce sadness/distress – which is self-evident – or depression proper and, secondly, whether sadness/distress is a precursor or pacemaker of depression.”

11. Possessed, related.

    “proper motion — proper left — proper right”

    “a man so bold That dares do justice on my proper son”

    “Now learn the difference, at your proper cost, / Betwixt true valour and an empty boast.”

    “every country, and more than that, every private place, hath his proper remedies growing in it, particular almost to the domineering and most frequent maladies of it.”

    “Each animal has its proper pleasure, and the proper pleasure of man is connected with reason.”

12. Possessed, related.
13. Possessed, related.

    “proper subset — proper ideal”

14. Possessed, related.
15. Accurate, strictly applied.

    “Now that was a proper breakfast.”

16. (regional)Accurate, strictly applied.

    “The same tyme was Moses borne, and was a propper [translating ἀστεῖος (asteîos)] childe in the sight of God, which was norisshed up in his fathers housse thre monethes.”

17. (often, postpositional)Accurate, strictly applied.

    “Though unusual in the Dublin area he knew that it was not by any means unknown for desperadoes who had next to nothing to live on to be abroad waylaying and generally terrorising peaceable pedestrians by placing a pistol at their head in some secluded spot outside the city proper[…].”

18. Accurate, strictly applied.
19. (colloquial)Accurate, strictly applied.

    “When I realized I was wearing my shirt inside out, I felt a proper fool.”

20. Accurate, strictly applied.

adv

1. (Ireland, UK, colloquial, not-comparable)properly; thoroughly; completely.

   “'I thought it was the American Associated Press.' 'Oh, they are on the track, are they?' 'They to-day, and the Times yesterday. Oh, they are buzzing round proper.'”

   ““Christmas Eve,” said Nabby Adams. “I used to pump the bloody organ for the carols, proper pissed usually.””

   “The kid towelled him up proper.”

   “Don't you think you must have looked proper daft?”

2. (colloquial, nonstandard, not-comparable)properly.

   “"But it's not many of us as can make 'em proper."”

   “When I meet a bad chick, know I gotta tell her hello talk real proper, but she straight up out the ghetto”

noun

1. (obsolete)Something set apart for a special use.
2. A part of the Christian liturgy that varies according to the date.

name

1. A surname.