preen

Updates shared on social media show them eating regularly, growing stronger and starting to move their wings and preen their feathers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026

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

At this moment Frightful, who had been sitting quietly on her stump, began to preen.

From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

He smiles and dances and points and preens, turning each field-goal attempt into a telenovela.

From New York Times ● Dec. 14, 2021

A background performer in a hat draped with ivy sways to disco music while another in gold chain flaps preens in his fringed jacket.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 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

Sporting a flipped bouffant hairstyle and a floral wiggle dress that harked back to the 1967 film “Valley of the Dolls,” she’s not just immaculately preened for her inaugural L.A.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2023

The performances viewers see are not mimed to a studio recording that was made in advance and preened to perfection with editing.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2021

He preened about how scientific experts marveled at his grasp of the complex details of virology and the way supposedly awestruck doctors asked, "How do you know so much?"

From Salon ● Apr. 15, 2020

Before the premiere, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hardwick preened for photographs but entertained questions only from television reporters.

From New York Times ● Aug. 21, 2019

Tristran's mother preened, and Yvaine knew that she was not.

From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman

I understand that preening and politicking is way more fun and ego-enhancing than the minutiae of government in Sacramento.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026

Reviewing the musical before it transferred to Broadway, our critic praised it as “an exuberant parade of song, dance, preening and posing that revitalizes Mr. Lloyd Webber’s enduring score with wit, invention and roof-rattling energy.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

As in most of the director’s movies, the characters behave like preening betta fish.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

First they came for the preening, powdered popinjays of television news, but I did not speak out because I am not a popinjay.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026

Dimple could see her practically preening for the crowd.

From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon