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It primes his dating pump

Posted by ESC on August 29, 2004

In Reply to: It primes his dating pump posted by Smokey Stover on August 29, 2004

: : Hello,
: : Could anyone tell me what the sentence means?

: : I looked up "prime" it says "to supply a pump" or something...

: : Thanks in advance

: To prime something generally means to prepare it in some fashion. If you're going to fire an old-fashioned firearm you put primer (gunpowder) in the pan to prepare it. If you're going to paint a car or house you first apply a primer, that is, a first coat, to prepare the wood or metal to accept the next coat or final coat. Until less than a hundred years ago most households obtained their water from wells, and to get the water up out of the well often used a hand-pump. The actual water level often lay well below the level of the pump, so you might spend a lot of time pumping out air until the water level rose to that of the pump. This was tedious, but if you had some water at hand, you could pour it down the pipe until the water level was where the pump could suck it up without numerous wasted strokes. Pouring the water down was "priming the pump." Some analogous procedure is often used with pumps or siphons. Priming your dating pump would have to mean in some way preparing yourself for a date, or for beginning to date (say, by dating your sister first), or for starting serious dating. Is this more than you wanted to know? SS

You are a fount of knowledge SS.

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