proper adv.
1. extremely, very, usu. constr. with an adj., e.g. proper stupid.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Life of General F. Marion (1816) 124: By jing! I should like it proper well! | |
| Major Downing (1834) 30: The folks got rich there proper fast. | |
| in Meine Crockett Almanacks (1955) 133: He was proper mad, I tell you. | |
| Nick of the Woods II i: Come, miss; I’m proper glad you’re left behind. | |
 | Cadiz Democrat Sentinel (OH) 5 Mar. 4/1: My first sweetheart was a proper handsome gal. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 194: Proper very, exceedingly, sometimes ironically; ‘you are a proper nice fellow,’ meaning a great scamp. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| ‘Lists From Maine’ in DN IV i 5: proper, adv. Very. ‘They’ll come proper handy next time.’. | |
| Diary I (1950) 26: I think as how I should put me on a bonfire because i am proper poorly. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Coonardoo 284: They got proper wet out there. | |
| Send for Paul Temple (1992) 44: Can’t stand the sight of blood. Makes me proper queer-like. | |
| They Drive by Night 28: What the hell had he got to be so browned off about? He ought to be feeling proper chirpy. | |
| in Mass-Observation War Factory: A Report 12: I’m proper tired tonight. Think I’ll go up soon. | |
| ‘My Man Bovanne’ in Gorilla, My Love (1972) 9: Tomorrow’s dinner [...] is goin to be a grand thing proper. | |
| Crumple Zone 180: Ah folded up like a chonga wrap seein’ him proper wound up. | |
| BBC News ‘Report on Teenage Slang’ 11 Mar. [radio] John’s chick is proper buff [...] John’s girlfriend is really pretty. | |
| Pigeon English 5: It’s proper windy at the bottom like a whirlpool. | |
| What They Was 191: All my boys who’ve met my father proper like him. |
2. in the proper manner, to a great extent.
| ‘’Arry on His ’Oliday’ in Punch 13 Oct. 160/2: Bin dooing the Swell pretty proper, I beg to assure yer, old man. | |
| Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 31 May37: [caption] McMouther, of the Provincial Theatres Royal, is letting them have it proper. | |
| ‘Rats’ in Roderick (1972) 57: They’re goin’ at it proper, too. | |
| De Omnibus 103: Thet boy Ginger never so much as grinned. ’E’d got ’Ankin proper, an’ that were all ’e keered abart. | |
| ‘On Account of a Lady’ in Taking the Count 125: T-bone comes out from behin’ and puts de boots to him proper. | |
| (con. 1916) Her Privates We (1986) 75: Mr Clinton an’ a couple of the sentries were the only people in the bay, an’ ’e got it proper, ’e did. | |
| World to Win 66: Not much pay, but there’ll be a bit of a raise regular if ye take on proper as ye should. | |
| ‘There’s Hicks In All Trades’ in All Sports Feb. 🌐 It is a crime the way a nice little boy [...] is going to get his face pasted proper by a real boxer. | |
| Shiralee 50: He’s been giving O’Hara the works proper. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 135: Put us in the cart good and proper. | |
| Return of the Hood 19: Now everything was screwed up proper. Real snafu. | |
| Vinnie Got Blown Away 63: We still had a misunderstanding on account of I fucked up proper one time back, needed my brains examined. | |
| Powder 27: Make sure we get looked after proper, Wheeze. | |
| Indep. Rev. 19 May 4: They can’t find ’nuff yute wot speak proper. | |
| Killing Pool 145: Kids, stamping on my head [...] proper trying to kill me, an old man. |
In phrases
to talk Standard English.
| Word-book of VA Folk Speech 437: Talk proper, v . When a negro tries to talk grammatically, and pronounce differently from his usual way of talking. | |
| Folk-lore of the Sea Islands, S.C. 148: [heading] THE GIRL WHO LEARNED TO TALK PROPER. | |
| Atlantic CLVIII 435/2: Tom was finishing high school, and went well-dressed, and he could talk proper like nobody’s business. | |
| Sophia 229: You should learn ’ow to talk proper, an’ sy wot you do mean, an’ not wot you down’t mean. | |
| in Encounter n.d. in Norman’s London (1969) 60: As a matter of fact I myself have only just started to talk ‘proper’ and the only reason for this is because the people I talk to most these days wouldn’t understand what I was talking about. | |
| Portrait of Cornwall 152: There were influences at work to make me ‘talk proper’. The headmaster of my elementary school, a well-educated ‘foreigner’, was one. | |
| Black Culture and Black Consciousness 153: One of Mitchell-Kernan’s informants said contemptuously of a friend who was ‘trying to talk proper’: ‘She think she gon get time off for good behavior’. | |
| Color Purple 183: Sugar, she say one day when Shug home, don’t you think it be nice if Celie could talk proper? Shug say, She can talk in sign language for all I care. | |
| Eating on the Street 123: You know, at certain times you talk proper, is what black folks call it. | |
| Out of the Mouths of Slaves 5: How can you trust motherfuckers that do shit like that, and then they say we stupid cause we don’t talk proper. Talkin proper don’t feel natural to me. | |
| Tangier Island 244: An Islander hears another Islander trying to ‘talk proper’ when strangers ask questions. |