preen

These days, pastel and fluorescent birds groom, preen and bicker in enclosures behind the home.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026

Maybe it’s happiest tucked into a cast-iron skillet, going golden and jammy while the showier types preen in their baskets.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2025

It might be a bank holiday in the UK, but for the designers, publicists and PAs, it'll be an extraordinarily busy day as they preen and prepare their stars to walk the grand staircase.

From BBC ● May 4, 2025

“When you have that double concentration, it really focuses you. It forces you to not lay back, becomes quite athletic. You don’t show, point, preen or strut, you do. That’s always the sweet spot.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2024

Through the lens Axel watches the adult preen the baby, touching it with his beak.

From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers

Torelli is a great physical comic; even in wrist restraints, she preens.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2024

A few blocks away preens Bergdorf Goodman, the beautiful princess whose holding company, Neiman Marcus, muscled recently into the Hudson Yards, like a watchful mother-in-law moving into the guest cottage.

From New York Times ● Nov. 27, 2019

It swims and preens and eats, sure, but it will never migrate over the Korean Peninsula, or use its amazing plumage to flag down a mate as it would in the wild.

From Slate ● Feb. 11, 2019

The economist preens; the Shakespearean knows that “all scholarly endeavor was eventually . . . tucked . . . into endless paper beds, installed within tombstone covers and seldom disturbed.”

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 9, 2018

He preens on the railing, raising his beak majestically, fluffing his feathers.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

So if you happen to raise an orphan like we did with Alfie, that desire to be preened is very relatable.

From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2023

With a singular presence and a deeply personal cadence, he preened and strode, quipped, opined, demanded and screamed into many, many telephones.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2022

Hagler’s Marvelous nickname was bestowed by a Lowell, Mass., journalist when he fought there as an amateur and preened in the ring, emulating Muhammad Ali.

From New York Times ● Mar. 13, 2021

Another activist, Joy Villa, preened in the background in a floor-length red gown emblazoned with the word “freedom.”

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 11, 2019

Although a creature of the wilds it had a leaning towards civilisation, and preened and smiled in a jam-jar in some cottage window without resentment, living quite a week if given water.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

And there’s the leering, preening Rupert Mannion from “Ted Lasso” — multimillionaire soccer team owner, inveterate philanderer and incurably vindictive divorcé.

From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2026

When they film themselves preening on their phones, with the images projected onto the giant mirrors, Claire and Solange use filters that turn their sallow, pinched faces into plump-lipped, high-cheekboned ones that suggest Kim Kardashian.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026

In a moment with Colin Farrell as his preening son, Duvall is shocked and disappointed by how things are being handled.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026

Mr. Dirden speaks with a majestic orotundity that evokes a preacher carrying around an invisible pulpit, and exudes a preening pomposity and the requisite vicious abusiveness toward Lucky.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2025

No questions, no interviews—but there was certainly a lot of preening.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman