• vt. 打扮；用嘴整理；贊揚(yáng)
• vi. 洋洋自得；把（自己）打扮漂亮

來(lái)自prune拼寫(xiě)變體，來(lái)自prune,使圓潤(rùn)，剪枝，修剪，用于指鳥(niǎo)整理羽毛，引申詞義打扮，修飾。

preen

preen: [14] Preen is generally taken to be an alteration of prune ‘cut branches’, under the influence of another now obsolete verb preen ‘pierce’, a descendant of the Old English noun prēon ‘pin’ (the notion presumably being of a bird ‘piercing’ its feathers with its beak when cleaning them).
=> prune

preen (v.)

"to trim, to dress up," late 14c., perhaps a variation of Middle English proynen, proinen "trim the feather with the beak" (see prune (v.)); or perhaps from Old French poroindre "anoint before," and Old French proignier "round off, prune." Middle English prene (from Old English preon, a general Germanic word) meant "to pin," and probably influenced the form of this word. Watkins, however, connects it with Latin unguere "to smear, anoint."

Because of the popularity of falconry, bird activities formerly were more closely observed and words for them were more precise in English than today.

Youre hawke proynith and not pikith and she prenyth not bot whan she begynnyth at hir leggys, and fetcheth moystour like oyle at hir taill. ["Book of St. Albans," 1486]

1. Rare birds preen themselves right in front of your camera.

很少有鳥(niǎo)類會(huì)在鏡頭面前梳理自己的羽毛。

來(lái)自柯林斯例句

2. He never cared a preen for her.

他對(duì)她一點(diǎn)也不在乎.

來(lái)自《現(xiàn)代英漢綜合大詞典》

3. They sat in Germaine Rocher's salon watching the languid mannequins preen and simper.

她們正坐在吉米·羅切的美術(shù)展覽館里,看著那些疲乏的服裝模特炫耀服裝和假笑.

來(lái)自辭典例句

4. Brian: Oh. Well, next time, preen yourself before asking her out.

布萊恩: 噢. 那下次你要開(kāi)口約她出去之前,先好好打扮一下吧.

來(lái)自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)

5. Do not preen yourself on defeating so weak a person.

不要因打敗弱者而自傲.

來(lái)自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)