noun
Meaning 1
A forked tool used by clothiers for dressing cloth.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
preen
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/pɹiːn/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -iːn
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CMU ARPABET: P R IY1 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A pin.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A bodkin; brooch.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 4
To pin; fasten.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 5
To groom; to trim or dress the feathers with the beak.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: ambitransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
To spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance, e.g. in front of a mirror.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive, reflexive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: primp, smarten up
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 7
To show off, posture, or smarm.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: flex, fluff one's feathers, swagger, aura farm, boulevardier, cut a wide swath, cut it fat, cut round, exhibitionize, figure away, flamboast, flaunt, floss, gallery, high-side, let one's nuts hang, ostent, ostentate, preen, showboat, show away, show off, strut, strut one's stuff, stunt, swag it out, swank, three-sheet, venditate, yaya
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 8
To flatter.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: jolly, puff, stroke, brush up to, collogue, flatter, flatterize, glaver, gloze, lay it on thick, make fair weather, palaver, preen, soothe, speak well of, tickle the ear
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 9
To comb; to make orderly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 10
To trim up, as trees.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 11
To improve the appearance of; groom; prettify.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: broadly, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 12
dress or groom with elaborate care
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- She likes to dress when going to the opera
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: primp, plume, dress
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: overdress, dress up, fig out, fig up, deck up, gussy up, fancy up, trick up, deck out, trick out, prink, attire, get up, rig out, tog up, tog out
verb
Meaning 13
pride or congratulate (oneself) for an achievement
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: congratulate
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: gloat, triumph, crow
verb
Meaning 14
clean with one's bill
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- The birds preened
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: plume
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: arrange, set up, clean, make clean
History
Etymology
From Middle English pren, from Old English prēon, from Proto-Germanic *preunaz (compare Icelandic prjónn (“pin, knitting-needle”), Danish pryne (“needle, eel-spear”)), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *brewn- (“protrusion, tip, edge”) (compare Lithuanian briaunà (“edge”), Albanian brez (“belt, girdle”)). Cognate with German Pfriem. The verb is from Middle English prenen, from pren (“a preen”), akin to German pfriemen.
Variant of prune (by influence of preen above). Attested in Chaucer (c. 1395) in the variants preyneth, prayneth, proyneth, prunyht, pruneth, from Old French proignier (“to trim the feathers with the beak”).
Across languages
Translations
32 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: чистя си перата (čistja si perata) — to groom (of birds)
- Chinese Mandarin: 用喙整理羽毛 — to groom (of birds)
- Czech: čistit si — to groom (of birds)
- Danish: pudse — to groom (of birds)
- Dutch: poetsen — to groom (of birds)
- Dutch: reinigen — to groom (of birds)
- Dutch: gladstrijken — to groom (of birds)
- Finnish: sukia — to groom (of birds)
- German: putzen — to groom (of birds)
- Irish: cluimhrigh — to groom (of birds)
- Khmer: សសិត (sɑɑsɑsət) — to groom (of birds)
- Russian: чи́ститься (čístitʹsja) — to groom (of birds)
- Russian: почи́ститься (počístitʹsja) — to groom (of birds)
- Russian: прихора́шиваться (prixorášivatʹsja) — to groom (of birds)
- Russian: прихороши́ться (prixorošítʹsja) — to groom (of birds)
- Swedish: putsa — to groom (of birds)
- Vietnamese: rỉa — to groom (of birds)
- Czech: šlechtit se — to spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance (of people)
- Czech: fintit se — to spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance (of people)
- Czech: šňořit se — to spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance (of people)
- Dutch: opsmukken uitdossen — to spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance (of people)
- German: herausputzen — to spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance (of people)
- German: zurechtmachen — to spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance (of people)
- German: aufbretzeln — to spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance (of people)
- Russian: прихора́шиваться (prixorášivatʹsja) — to spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance (of people)
- Russian: прихороши́ться (prixorošítʹsja) — to spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance (of people)
- Bulgarian: кипря се (kiprja se) — to show off
- Czech: naparovat se — to show off
- Czech: pyšnit se — to show off
- Dutch: pronken — to show off
- German: sich brüsten — to show off
- Spanish: ostentar — to show off