preen
/pɹiːn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.16 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A pin.
verb
To spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance, e.g. in front of a mirror.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "She never seemed to want for siller; the house was as bright as a new preen, the yaird better delved than the manse garden; […]"
- "Mr Kernan halted and preened himself before the sloping mirror of Peter Kennedy, hairdresser. Stylish coat, beyond a doubt. Scott of Dawson street. Well worth the half sovereign I gave Neary for it."
- "His preening self-satisfaction, chest thrown forward as he settles into a chair in his mansion..."
- "Impressed by their looks and their dancing, but not their singing, Mr. Farian called them Milli Vanilli and recorded an album of lightweight, preening dance-pop under their name, using uncredited studio musicians."
- "He preened under her compliments."
- "The crowning tragedy—or sick joke—is that those who have postured and preened the most ostentatiously about their devotion to the Constitution have been the most indifferent to its destruction."
Etymology
From Middle English pren, from Old English prēon, from Proto-Germanic *preunaz (compare Icelandic prjónn (“pin, knitting-needle”), Danish pryne (“needle, eel-spear”)), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *brewn- (“protrusion, tip, edge”) (compare Lithuanian briaunà (“edge”), Albanian brez (“belt, girdle”)). Cognate with German Pfriem. The verb is from Middle English prenen, from pren (“a preen”), akin to German pfriemen.