Pronunciations
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/pɹiːn/
Noun
A forked tool used by clothiers for dressing cloth.
A pin.
Usage- dialectal
- Examples
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She never seemed to want for siller; the house was as bright as a new preen, the yaird better delved than the manse garden; […]
A bodkin; brooch.
Usage- dialectal
Verb
To pin; fasten.
Usage- Transitive
Verb
To groom; to trim or dress the feathers with the beak.
Usage- Transitive or intransitive
- of birds
To spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance, e.g. in front of a mirror.
Usage- Intransitive
- Reflexive
- of people
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
To show off, posture, or smarm.
Usage- Intransitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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His preening self-satisfaction, chest thrown forward as he settles into a chair in his mansion...
More examples (1)
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.
He preened under her compliments.
More examples (2)
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.
“Six look like dyin', and five dead,” preened the killer.
To flatter.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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 '
New York nurtured and preened the most sophisticated audiences in the nation.
More examples (1)
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.
To comb; to make orderly.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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My two roommates are engineers who preen the diesels.
Preen the deer hair rearward around the hook shank, and take 3 tight thread wraps to secure it.
More examples (2)
Now Prossiden's finger was brandished, and preened the air in front of Onascam's face with florid implications.
He preened the registers, computer entries but of no avail.
To trim up, as trees.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Adjusting his spectacles on the bridge of his nose, he gently preened the bush with his pruners.
More examples (1)
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.
I ignored him and looked around, wondering who preened the conical fir trees on each ledge of the building.
To improve the appearance of; groom; prettify.
Usage- broadly
- Transitive
- Examples
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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 —”
More examples (1)
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.
He'd built a lodge and preened the country, and imported or otherwise attracted the game, and then found that no one came.
More examples (1)
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.
Verb
clean with one's bill
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The birds preened
pride or congratulate (oneself) for an achievement
- Synonyms
dress or groom with elaborate care
- Broader terms
- Examples
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She likes to dress when going to the opera