preen
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɹiːn/
rhymes: -iːn
Forms: form: preens
form: preening
form: preened
form: preened
Etymology: Variant of prune (by influence of preen above). Attested in Chaucer (c. 1395) in the variants preyneth, prayneth, proyneth, prunyht, pruneth, from Old French proignier (“to trim the feathers with the beak”).
Senses: glosses: To groom; to trim or dress the feathers with the beak.
raw_tags: of birds
examples: text: Mr Kernan halted and preened himself before the sloping mirror of Peter Kennedy, hairdresser. Stylish coat, beyond a doubt. Scott of Dawson street. Well worth the half sovereign I gave Neary for it.
ref: 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:
synonyms: primp
smarten up
glosses: To spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance, e.g. in front of a mirror.
raw_tags: of people
examples: text: His preening self-satisfaction, chest thrown forward as he settles into a chair in his mansion...
ref: 1993, Scott Simmon, The Films of D W Griffith:
text: Impressed by their looks and their dancing, but not their singing, Mr. Farian called them Milli Vanilli and recorded an album of lightweight, preening dance-pop under their name, using uncredited studio musicians.
ref: 1998 April 7, Neil Strauss, “Robert Pilatus, 32, Performer In Disgraced Band Milli Vanilli”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: He preened under her compliments.
ref: 2004, Jude Deveraux, Counterfeit Lady:
text: The crowning tragedy—or sick joke—is that those who have postured and preened the most ostentatiously about their devotion to the Constitution have been the most indifferent to its destruction.
ref: 2012, Mike Lofgren, The Party Is Over:
text: “Six look like dyin', and five dead,” preened the killer.
ref: 2016, Jeanne Williams, Daughter of the Sword:
glosses: To show off, posture, or smarm.
examples: text: In Miller's view the play is expressive of a peculiarly Renaissance vision of the harmonious marriage within the orderly society: 'its spirit derives from Elizabethan Puritanism's view of the household as an orderly place in whichc the marriage is consecrated not in the church but in the orderly procedures of domesticity ; in which obedience is required , not in order to preen the male pride of the father, but to restore order in a fallen world '
ref: 1989, Graham Holderness, The Taming of the Shrew, page 112:
text: New York nurtured and preened the most sophisticated audiences in the nation.
ref: 1992, Philip H. Ennis, The Seventh Stream: The Emergence of Rocknroll in American Popular Music, page 39:
text: Sorcha, who had quickly learned about the cynicism that's deeply engrained in the newspaper business, wrote up the whole development in the most glowing terms, with phrase after phrase of praise that preened the estate agents and developers into new realms of ecstasy.
ref: 2010, Alexandra Bell, Rising to the Deadline:
glosses: To flatter.
examples: text: My two roommates are engineers who preen the diesels.
ref: 2002, David G. Campbell, The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica:
text: Preen the deer hair rearward around the hook shank, and take 3 tight thread wraps to secure it.
ref: 2011, Jim Schollmeyer, Ted Leeson, Flies for Western Super Hatches, page 82:
text: Now Prossiden's finger was brandished, and preened the air in front of Onascam's face with florid implications.
ref: 2019, J.E. Franklin, Crouching at the Door:
text: He preened the registers, computer entries but of no avail.
ref: 2020, Rohit Pagare, After the Dark, page 124:
glosses: To comb; to make orderly.
examples: text: Adjusting his spectacles on the bridge of his nose, he gently preened the bush with his pruners.
ref: 2007, J. P. De Sales, The Coming of the Reichchild, page 162:
text: He'd imagined he could see the whole world from there, whilst the people below tended to their window boxes and preened the rose bushes, making this idyllic village pretty for the tourists.
ref: 2013, Hannah Graham, Beneath the Perfect World:
text: I ignored him and looked around, wondering who preened the conical fir trees on each ledge of the building.
ref: 2018, J.S. Monroe, The Riot Act:
glosses: To trim up, as trees.
examples: text: He brushed and preened the marquis, front and back. “Lucky we are, Your Grace, no gashes that I see. But the beard is in a woeful state —”
ref: 2011, Brennan Pursell, The Spanish Match, page 26:
text: Clearly this is not heritage tourism development. Instead it recommends how to preen the city for the uncritical gaze of a kind of tourist who willingly accepts low-grade commercialized leisure.
ref: 2011, Dean MacCannell, The Ethics of Sightseeing, page 200:
text: He'd built a lodge and preened the country, and imported or otherwise attracted the game, and then found that no one came.
ref: 2015, Walter Jon Williams, The Rift:
text: A piece of human debris, usually plucked up and disposed of by the group of volunteers who pruned and preened the woods on a weekly basis.
ref: 2020, Carys Jones, The List:
glosses: To improve the appearance of; groom; prettify.
Related terms: primp