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Preen   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).





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Preen" Quotes from Famous Books



... case of exciting suspicion among the servants he had still to masquerade as Betty Burke till he left the house. Mrs. Macdonald, her daughter, and Miss Flora all came up to assist at his toilet, for 'deil a preen could he put in,' as his hostess expressed herself. He laughed so heartily over his own appearance that they could hardly get his dress fastened. Before he left the room he permitted Flora Macdonald to cut off a lock of his hair, ...
— The True Story Book • Andrew Lang
... stay the whole morning with me in perfect content if they were allowed to nestle into a wool mat placed at the doorstep of the French window leading out upon the lawn; there they would plume themselves and sometimes preen each other, and I could watch the way in which the feathers were drawn through the apparently awkward bill, yet I suppose so suited for its various uses; anyway the feathers came out from its manipulations as smooth and sleek as velvet, and ...
— Wild Nature Won By Kindness • Elizabeth Brightwen
... to most in young birds," said another elderly hen, "is their appearance. Some of them do nothing all day but preen their feathers. Look at the over-studied arrangements of their wing flights, and the affected exactness of their tail feathers! One looks in vain for sweetness and simplicity in the present-day ...
— Dot and the Kangaroo • Ethel C. Pedley
... face of this expanse of waters, and perfectly secure from fowlers, lie all day long, in the winter season, vast flocks of ducks, teals, and widgeons, of various denominations; where they preen and solace, and rest themselves, till towards sunset, when they issue forth in little parties (for in their natural state they are all birds of the night) to feed in the brooks and meadows; returning again with the dawn of the morning. Had this ...
— The Natural History of Selborne • Gilbert White
... aims, and pursuits as modified by the sympathetic and understanding companionship of a woman. He pictured himself as he must seem to her in his different pursuits. The picturesqueness pleased him. The simple, direct vanity of the man—the wholesome vanity of a straightforward nature—awakened to preen its feathers before ...
— Arizona Nights • Stewart Edward White


Words linked to "Preen" :   triumph, arrange, prink, clean, get dressed, tog out, make clean, fancy up, gussy up, fig up, preen gland, dress up, get up, congratulate, trick up, gloat, deck out, deck up


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