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Preen   /prin/   Listen
verb
Preen  v. t.  (past & past part. preened; pres. part. preening)  
1.
To dress with, or as with, a preen; to trim or dress with the beak, as the feathers; said of birds.
2.
To trim up, as trees. (Prov. Eng.)
3.
Hence: To dress (oneself) carefully or stylishly; to primp.
4.
To pride (oneself) on one's accomplishments; to congratulate (oneself).


Preen  v. i.  
1.
To dress up neatly and smartly; to make oneself well-groomed and well-dressed.
2.
To feel proud of one's achievement; to swell or gloat.


noun
Preen  n.  A forked tool used by clothiers in dressing cloth.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Preen" Quotes from Famous Books



... little bunny on their way to the opening exercises, so there is no need of saying anything more about it, except that it had a nice door in front and a dozen round holes, under which were fastened little pieces of board for wide windowsills, on which the pigeons used to stand and preen their feathers. ...
— Little Jack Rabbit's Adventures • David Cory
... it is advertising that made it possible. We handle all his copy—I've written a lot of it myself. We have made the Chapman prunes a staple of civilization and culture. I myself devised that slogan 'We preen ourselves on our prunes' which you see in every big magazine. Chapman prunes are known the world over. The Mikado eats them once a week. The Pope eats them. Why, we have just heard that thirteen cases of them are to be put on board the George ...
— The Haunted Bookshop • Christopher Morley
... for me Than lodgment in that Great Menagerie Where Birds of aureate Plumage preen their Quills And Social ...
— The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Jr. (The Rubiyt of Omar Khayym Jr.) • Wallace Irwin
... hot reprehending eyes were on the girl in the blue dress. She did not observe that she herself was dancing opposite Andy, while Pendrilla Lusk dragged with drooping head in the line across from the amiably grinning Doss Provine. Finding herself suddenly in the lead and successful, Huldah began to preen her feathers a bit. She withdrew a hand from the girl on her right to arrange the small string of blue glass beads around ...
— Judith of the Cumberlands • Alice MacGowan
... sit, lurching and half asleep. The boatmen shout one to another in nasal discords. Lazily you preen your great wings, eagle wings, built for the sky; ...
— Profiles from China • Eunice Tietjens


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