Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To smooth or clean (feathers) with the beak or bill.
- v. To trim or clean (fur) with the tongue, as cats do.
- v. To dress or groom (oneself) with elaborate care; primp.
- v. To take pride or satisfaction in (oneself); gloat.
- v. To dress up; primp.
- v. To swell with pride; gloat or exult.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A pin.
- n. A bodkin; a brooch.
- n. A forked instrument used by clothiers in dressing cloth.
- To pin; fasten.
- To prune or trim, as a tree.
- To trim, dress, or fix with the beak, as a bird its plumage; plume. This habit is characteristic of birds, especially of water-fowl, the feathers being oiled with the unctuous substance of the rumpgland, as well as set in order. See
elæodochon .
Wiktionary
- n. A pin.
- n. A bodkin; brooch.
- n. A forked instrument used by clothiers in dressing cloth.
- v. transitive To pin; fasten.
- v. of birds To groom; to trim or dress with the beak, as the feathers.
- v. To show off, posture, or smarm.
- v. UK, dialect, dated To trim up, as trees.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A forked tool used by clothiers in dressing cloth.
- v. To dress with, or as with, a preen; to trim or dress with the beak, as the feathers; -- said of birds.
- v. Prov. Eng. To trim up, as trees.
- v. To dress (oneself) carefully or stylishly; to primp.
- v. To pride (oneself) on one's accomplishments; to congratulate (oneself).
- v. To dress up neatly and smartly; to make oneself well-groomed and well-dressed.
- v. To feel proud of one's achievement; to swell or gloat.
WordNet 3.0
- v. clean with one's bill
- v. dress or groom with elaborate care
- v. pride or congratulate (oneself) for an achievement
Etymologies
- Variant of prune (by influence of preen above) Attested in Chaucer (c. 1395) in the variants preyneth, prayneth, proyneth, prunyht, pruneth. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English proinen, preinen, blend of Old French proignier, to prune; see prune2, and Old French poroindre, to anoint before (por-, before from Latin prō-; see pro-1 + oindre, to anoint from Latin unguere). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Continuing in "preen mode" (we don't do it very often), we note, however, that The Sunday Telegraph – like the Telegraph and Argus the day before – failed to pick up on the EU link, and thus failed to remind us that the bulk of the petty restrictions stem from the implementation of EU law on landfill and recycling.”
“When birds "preen" and try to remove the oil, they can swallow it and be poisoned.”
The Washington Post: Scientists watch for environmental effects of Gulf of Mexico oil spill
“I don't cite Ernesto to brag well, maybe to "preen".”
“Resolutely unglamorous, Chadsey's young men, no hunks, preen and pose, sometimes grotesquely transformed by superimpositions that seem to be materialized projections of their fantasies, like the vulpine shadow in "Portrait (Pink Beak)," the black mud luchador mask (or terrorist balaclava) in "Blackface Rod," the dangling penis in the standing/spread-eagled protagonist of "Marines," or the extra sets of arms in the androgynous "Red Head (Shift).”
The Huffington Post: ArtScene: This Month's Top Exhibitions in the Western United States
“The moggies bound off surfaces in super slo-mo as classy piano music plays; they preen, they paw, they nuzzle, then snuggle into shelf space like their species 'very existence depends on it.”
“Instead, we allow members of Congress to posture and preen for the cameras.”
The Huffington Post: Daniel Hough Jones: Compel Congress to Work
“I suppose there are places in America where such a show might still jolt its viewers, but to see "The Scottsboro Boys" on Broadway is to witness a nightly act of collective self-congratulation in which the right-thinking members of the audience preen themselves complacently at the thought of their own enlightenment.”
“You guys would rather preen in a moral mirror, than actually win.”
“The last thing we want to do is make significant investments in infrastructure that will serve us well into the future, like those fools did during the last depression, when we can be serious and safe and preen about “shovel ready” projects and stuff ...”
“This was mostly an exercise to make us feel comfortable onstage, but many in our group of saucy broads used their moments in the spotlight to preen.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘preen’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 112 more...
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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How very mikeropological..
Basically it's just mikeropology's words, but with his username turned into an adjectivally splendid list name.
mikeropology, squoze, anthropromorphism, mullu, spondylus, goobers, hipster, burnt umber, ochre, canvas, lapizure, burnt sienna and 172 more...
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kirstenio's Words
lascivious, transcendant, phantasmagoria, salacious, beatitude, solitude, pseudo, pretentious, inanity, sublimation, clobber, obscurity and 186 more...
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beatricks's Words
tremendous, naiad, thrush, samsara, thronging, nascent, broom, aristeia, streak, susurrant, reverberate, resistentialism and 352 more...
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List 1
erudite, iniquitous, acrimonious, implacable, fractious, irascible, debonair, churlish, brusque, sycophantic, phlegmatic, indomitable and 108 more...
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GRE 3500 P
paean, pall, palliate, pallid, palpable, palpitate, paltry, pan, panache, panegyric, pantomime, paraphernalia and 93 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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annscann's list
My words, generally
bavarois, bawbee, bawd, bawdry, libertine, russophobe, rubicund, gossamer, persnickety, claptrap, gesticulate, schadenfreudian and 199 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 887 more...
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vocabulary.com
it says that i mastered these words
Assuage, abject, adjure, ancillary, aegis, augur, avocation, betoken, blase, bode, canon, cavort and 79 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for preen.
brtom Swans from Anna Liffey swim down here sometimes to preen themselves. No accounting for tastes.
Joyce, Ulysses, 8 Jan 3, 2007