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

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

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2024

Travis is the kind of guy who gets excited by having enemies: “You know you’re on your way up when they slap a target on your back,” he preens.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 3, 2022

The title character of “Carlos” broods and preens over his determination to be a revolutionary outlaw hero.

From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2020

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

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

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

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

During a 21-point loss in March to the Clippers that clinched the Clippers’ sweep of their four-game season series, Clippers guard Reggie Jackson danced and preened and crowed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 5, 2022

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

Sumac preened himself happily on the other side, and I will say I felt as full and content as Mama Killa at that moment.

From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis

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

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

That last is a sly point that’s been an enduring comic take of Hitler’s artistic preening.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2025

The “Oppenheimer” crowd were hardly the hardest partiers at the Vanity Fair post- Oscars party on Sunday night, but they hardly needed to be, their hardware did all the preening for them.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 11, 2024

The statue of the preening lion no longer gleams.

From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie