- Preen is defined as to take great care in cleaning oneself or another.
- An example of preen is a bird cleaning its feathers.
- An example of preen is a woman carefully plucking her eyebrows.
preen
transitive verb
- to clean and trim (the feathers) with the beak: said of birds
- to make (oneself) trim; dress up or adorn (oneself)
- to show satisfaction with or vanity in (oneself)
Origin of preen
Middle English preynen, altered (infl. by preonen, to prick with a pin ; from preon ; from Old English a pin) ; from proinen, to pruneintransitive verb
Related Forms:
- preener
noun
preen
verb
preened, preen·ing, preensverb
, transitive- a. To smooth or clean (feathers) with the beak or bill.b. To trim or clean (fur) with the tongue, as cats do.
- To dress or groom (oneself) with elaborate care; primp.
- To take pride or satisfaction in (oneself); gloat.
verb
, intransitive- To dress up; primp.
- To swell with pride; gloat or exult.
Origin of preen
Middle English proinen, preinen, blend of Old French proignier, to prune; see prune2, and Old French poroindre, to anoint before (por-, before from Latin prō-; see pro–1 + oindre, to anoint, from Latin unguere).Related Forms:
- preen′er
noun
preen
(plural preens)
(third-person singular simple present preens, present participle preening, simple past and past participle preened)
From Middle English pren, from Old English prēon, from Proto-Germanic *preunaz (compare Icelandic prjónn (“pin, knitting-needle”), Danish pryne ‘needle, eel-spear’), from Proto-Indo-European *brewn- (“protrusion, tip, edge”) (compare Lithuanian briaunà ‘edge’, Albanian brez ‘belt, girdle’). The verb is from Middle English prenen, from pren (“a preen”).
(third-person singular simple present preens, present participle preening, simple past and past participle preened)
Variant of prune (by influence of preen above) Attested in Chaucer (c. 1395) in the variants preyneth, prayneth, proyneth, prunyht, pruneth.
