Proper /(?)/

Prop·er

Proper

a.
  1. Belonging to one; one's own; individual.
    Now learn the difference, at your proper cost, Betwixt true valor and an empty boast.
  2. Belonging to the natural or essential constitution; peculiar; not common; particular; as, every animal has his proper instincts and appetites.
    Those high and peculiar attributes . . . which constitute our proper humanity.
  3. Befitting one's nature, qualities, etc.; suitable in all respect; appropriate; right; fit; decent; as, water is the proper element for fish; a proper dress.
    The proper study of mankind is man.
    In Athens all was pleasure, mirth, and play, All proper to the spring, and sprightly May.
  4. Becoming in appearance; well formed; handsome. [Archaic]
    Moses . . . was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child.
    — Heb. xi. 23.
  5. Pertaining to one of a species, but not common to the whole; not appellative; -- opposed to common; as, a proper name; Dublin is the proper name of a city.
  6. Rightly so called; strictly considered; as, Greece proper; the garden proper.
  7. Represented in its natural color; -- said of any object used as a charge. (Her.)

Phrases & Compounds
In proper
individually; privately.
Proper flower
one of the single florets, or corollets, in an aggregate or compound flower.
Proper fraction
a fraction in which the numerator is less than the denominator.
Proper nectary
a nectary separate from the petals and other parts of the flower.
Proper noun
a name belonging to an individual, by which it is distinguished from others of the same class; -- opposed to common noun; as, John, Boston, America.
Proper perianth
that which incloses only a single flower.
Proper receptacle
a receptacle which supports only a single flower or fructification.

Proper

adv.
  1. Properly; hence, to a great degree; very; as, proper good. [Colloq & Vulgar]