proper
    adj 1: marked by suitability or rightness or appropriateness;
           "proper medical treatment"; "proper manners" [ant:
           improper]
    2: having all the qualities typical of the thing specified;
       "wanted a proper dinner; not just a snack"; "he finally has a
       proper job"
    3: limited to the thing specified; "the city proper"; "his claim
       is connected with the deed proper"
    4: appropriate for a condition or purpose or occasion or a
       person's character, needs; "everything in its proper place";
       "the right man for the job"; "she is not suitable for the
       position" [syn: proper, right]

Proper \Prop"er\, a. [OE. propre, F. propre, fr. L. proprius.
   Cf. Appropriate.]
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   1. Belonging to one; one's own; individual. "His proper good"
      [i. e., his own possessions]. --Chaucer. "My proper son."
      --Shak.
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            Now learn the difference, at your proper cost,
            Betwixt true valor and an empty boast. --Dryden.
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   2. Belonging to the natural or essential constitution;
      peculiar; not common; particular; as, every animal has his
      proper instincts and appetites.
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            Those high and peculiar attributes . . . which
            constitute our proper humanity.       --Coleridge.
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   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.
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            The proper study of mankind is man.   --Pope.
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            In Athens all was pleasure, mirth, and play,
            All proper to the spring, and sprightly May.
                                                  --Dryden.
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   4. Becoming in appearance; well formed; handsome. [Archaic]
      "Thou art a proper man." --Chaucer.
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            Moses . . . was hid three months of his parents,
            because they saw he was a proper child. --Heb. xi.
                                                  23.
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   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.
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   6. Rightly so called; strictly considered; as, Greece proper;
      the garden proper.
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   7. (Her.) Represented in its natural color; -- said of any
      object used as a charge.
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   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.
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Proper \Prop"er\, adv.
   Properly; hence, to a great degree; very; as, proper good.
   [Colloq & Vulgar]
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PROPER. That which is essential, suitable, adapted, and correct. 
     2. Congress is authorized by art, 1, s. 8, of the constitution of the 
United States, "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper, for 
carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by 
this constitution of the United States, in any department. or officer 
thereof." See Necessary and Proper.