DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Prop·er a.
 1. Belonging to one; one's own; individual. “His proper good” [i. e., his own possessions]. --Chaucer. “My proper son.”
 Now learn the difference, at your proper cost,
 Betwixt true valor and an empty boast.   --Dryden.
 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.   --Coleridge.
 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.   --Pope.
 In Athens all was pleasure, mirth, and play,
 All proper to the spring, and sprightly May.   --Dryden.
 4. Becoming in appearance; well formed; handsome. [Archaic] “Thou art a proper man.”
    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. Her. Represented in its natural color; -- said of any object used as a charge.
 In proper, individually; privately. [Obs.] --Jer. Taylor.
 Proper flower or Proper corolla Bot., one of the single florets, or corollets, in an aggregate or compound flower.
 Proper fraction Arith. a fraction in which the numerator is less than the denominator.
 Proper nectary Bot., a nectary separate from the petals and other parts of the flower.
 Proper noun Gram., 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 or Proper involucre Bot., that which incloses only a single flower.
 Proper receptacle Bot., a receptacle which supports only a single flower or fructification.

 proper noun
      n : a noun that denotes a particular thing; usually capitalized
          [syn: proper name] [ant: common noun]