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

His middle school pals call him “Wang Wang,” one of a few silly monikers among his longtime friend group, who preen and posture beyond their years.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2024

When dinner was done, the fire would blaze on; Frightful would sit on the foot post of the bed and preen and wipe her beak and shake.

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

Brianne purrs and preens even as she expresses skepticism, and whines and demurs when she might bare real claws.

From New York Times ● Mar. 3, 2023

Sometimes his comic instincts do pay off, as when Thor, Jane and friends crash a neo-Olympian, Vegas-ready paradise called Omnipotence City, where Crowe’s Zeus preens, prances and speaks in a hilariously awful Greek accent.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2022

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

Jeudy pranced and preened in a squabble with Smith, the former Panthers star receiver and current NFL Network analyst, prior to the Broncos’ 19-8 loss at Kansas City last week.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 20, 2023

While that character, Fleur, primped and preened for an imagined camera as if on a livestream, she bragged about her “social media fluency” on an address to a “royal hiring academy.”

From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2023

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

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

So she preened her flight feathers, wiped her cheek on her shoulder, and walked under an overhanging rock.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

Mr. Turturro brings a savory humor and pathos to the scene, while Mr. Giamatti’s preening lecturing has a contrasting comic officiousness.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

The ducks are sitting or preening at the water, or about to take flight.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

This is not revelation: The defense secretary is well known for preening for the cameras with a level of self-regard that would embarrass most supermodels.

From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2026

Many were motionless, while others perched on rocks preening their feathers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2025

But when I reach that house, a tidy little bungalow with a cat preening in the window, nobody answers the door.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse