Definition of primer

• n. - One who, or that which, primes
• n. - an instrument or device for priming; esp., a cap, tube, or water containing percussion powder or other compound for igniting a charge of gunpowder.
• a. - First; original; primary.
• n. - Originally, a small prayer book for church service, containing the little office of the Virgin Mary; also, a work of elementary religious instruction.
• n. - A small elementary book for teaching children to read; a reading or spelling book for a beginner.
• 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.