1. (n.) A device for preparing or starting; a cap, tube, or water igniting; a book for beginning learning\.

2. (n.) One who, or that which, primes

3. (a.) First; original; primary.

4. (n.) Originally, a small prayer book for church service, containing the little office of the Virgin Mary; also, a work of elementary religious instruction.

5. (n.) A small elementary book for teaching children to read; a reading or spelling book for a beginner.

6. (n.) A kind of type, of which there are two species; one, called long primer, intermediate in size between bourgeois and small pica [see Long primer]; the other, called great primer, larger than pica.

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