The Collaborative International Dictionary
Proper \Prop"er\, a. [OE. propre, F. propre, fr. L. proprius. Cf. Appropriate.]
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Belonging to one; one's own; individual. ``His proper good'' [i. e., his own possessions]. 
 --Chaucer. ``My proper son.''
 --Shak.Now learn the difference, at your proper cost, Betwixt true valor and an empty boast. 
 --Dryden.
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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.
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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.
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Becoming in appearance; well formed; handsome. [Archaic] ``Thou art a proper man.'' 
 --Chaucer.Moses . . . was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child. 
 --Heb. xi. 23.
- 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. 
- Rightly so called; strictly considered; as, Greece proper; the garden proper. 
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(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.