preen

1. (transitive) To pin; fasten.transitive

1. (of birds, ambitransitive) To groom; to trim or dress the feathers with the beak.ambitransitive

2. (of people, intransitive, reflexive) To spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance, e.g. in front of a mirror.Examples: "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."Synonyms: primp, smarten upintransitivereflexive

3. (intransitive) To show off, posture, or smarm.Examples: "His preening self-satisfaction, chest thrown forward as he settles into a chair in his mansion..."; "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."intransitive

4. (transitive) To flatter.Examples: "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."; "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."transitive

5. (transitive) To comb; to make orderly.Examples: "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."; "Now Prossiden's finger was brandished, and preened the air in front of Onascam's face with florid implications."transitive

6. (transitive) To trim up, as trees.Examples: "Adjusting his spectacles on the bridge of his nose, he gently preened the bush with his pruners."; "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."transitive