Pronunciations (2)
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/ˈpɹaɪməl/
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ˈpɹaɪməl
Adjective
Being the first in time or in history.
Usage- not-comparable
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primal man
Of greatest importance; primary.
Usage- not-comparable
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More examples (4)
The most primal motion of all, of course, is vertical—a steady eternal fall into the infinity of space; speed cannot be ascribed to them, since, given the infinity of space and the absolute steadiness of the fall, no [relative] standard for it exists at all.
“We don’t know what life is. We do know what death is. It is change of habitat of ghost. I wish we had some sepate or house of bishops to tabulate these concepts. The law of togetherness and apartness is the most primal concept of life, Hence a crystal belongs as legitimately to the sphere of life as any seraph that blazes before the throne.” And so on for dreary pages.
But in the United States the whole movement has hardly reached the stage of toleration. It seems difficult for the great body of well-meaning, native-born citizens of mature vears, who are not of the wage-earning order, to understand how enormous have been the changes in the very frame-work of industrial life, and in the simplest and most primal facts affecting the social conditions in which the wage- workers, especially of the great cities and manufacturing sections of the land, now find themselves, year by year, more and more completely environed. The successful middle-aged American carries within his memory, as a rule, associations as to his own early struggles quite at variance with those that would now wait on him were he about to enter the arena of competition, armed only with such forcesas his natural physical nowers, partial training, and moderately developed mental capacities, might afford him at this time. Failing to put himself in the other man’s place, the matured man of business is almost invariably narrow and unjust in his estimate of the motives and aims of the labor-union organizer. There is also a justifiable feeling against the effort to make metes and bounds in the way of class distinctions.
“I think I trigger a lot of their primal rage,” Mr. Greenwald said, referring to Brazilians who support the president. “They view me as someone who deserves to be punished.”
Being one of the pieces of meat initially separated from the carcass during butchering, prior to division into smaller cuts.
Usage- not-comparable
Noun
A primal cut (of meat).
The first element of something, especially the first letter of a word.
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DOUBLE ACROSTIC. My primals and finals are the same as the first crossword.
Verb
To take part in primal therapy.
Usage- Intransitive
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More examples (1)
One of my patients told me of an acquaintance who primaled in the shopping center. Janov described a patient who primaled on the tennis court. Apparently, once initiated, patients primal in any place at any time for the rest of their lives.
Primaling on the infant level seems so genuinely babyish that the unsophisticated observer may mistake it for psychotic behavior.
Adjective
serving as an essential component
- Synonyms
- Examples
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a cardinal rule
the central cause of the problem
More examples (2)
an example that was fundamental to the argument
computers are fundamental to modern industrial structure
having existed from the beginning; in an earliest or original stage or state
- Examples
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aboriginal forests
primal eras before the appearance of life on earth
More examples (3)
the forest primeval
primordial matter
primordial forms of life