prosy

English

Alternative forms

• prosey

Etymology

From prose +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹəʊzi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (UK) -əʊzi

Adjective

prosy (comparative prosier, superlative prosiest)

1. (of speech or writing) Unpoetic; dull and unimaginative.
2. (of a person) Behaving in a dull way; boring, tedious.
   • 1898, George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra:

     CHARMIAN. He makes you so terribly prosy and serious and learned and philosophical. It is worse than being religious, at our ages.

   • 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "Well, well, we all get a bit prosy sometimes," said Lord John.

   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.19:

     I cannot imagine his pupil regarding him as anything but a prosy old pedant, set over him by his father to keep him out of mischief.

Derived terms

• prosily
• prosiness
• unprosy

Related terms

• prose

Translations

without imagination

Bulgarian: скучен (bg) (skučen), прозаичен (bg) (prozaičen) Finnish: mielikuvitukseton (fi) German: nüchtern (de) Maori: āmiki Polish: prozaiczny (pl)

Anagrams

• pyros, syrop

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈprosɪ]

Noun

prosy

1. instrumental plural of proso