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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of preen
By coincidence, Emhoff spoke to Georgetown Law School students shortly before a preening Trump announced Willkie Farr’s surrender on social media.
—
Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2025
Nearly 10 inches of ground clearance and torque aplenty allow the G 580 to scale a 45-degree incline and ford a depth of almost three feet—true off-road chops that let ambitious owners do more than preen at the Equinox valet.
—Robert Ross, Robb Report, 11 Feb. 2025
Only Nazis, free to preen, enjoy the ease of prolixity.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2025
The vaunted single take is, more often than not, actually a falsity, fabricated by clever edits or preening, doing nothing alchemical to the script at hand.
—Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for preen
Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2025
Nearly 10 inches of ground clearance and torque aplenty allow the G 580 to scale a 45-degree incline and ford a depth of almost three feet—true off-road chops that let ambitious owners do more than preen at the Equinox valet.
—Robert Ross, Robb Report, 11 Feb. 2025
Only Nazis, free to preen, enjoy the ease of prolixity.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2025
The vaunted single take is, more often than not, actually a falsity, fabricated by clever edits or preening, doing nothing alchemical to the script at hand.
—Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for preen
Recent Examples of Synonyms for preen
Verb
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Media gloating over Elon Musk’s departure from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is fairly widespread and much of it unfair.—
Clyde Wayne Crews Jr,
Forbes.com,
1 June 2025
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Smotrich gloated about the new settlements, making clear his goal was annexation.—
Dana Karni,
CNN Money,
30 May 2025
Verb
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Handlers at the 2024 National Dog Show Presented by Purina spoke exclusively with PEOPLE about getting different breeds ready for the big event and the amount of primping required.—
Marina Watts,
People.com,
28 Nov. 2024
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Photographed by Clémence Polès The next couple of hours felt like a rom-com montage—a bunch of girls playing, primping, and posing for pictures.—
Jessie Heyman,
Vogue,
15 Oct. 2024
Verb
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Messi, at 35, led his country to glory against France, winning soccer’s ultimate prize in a pulsating match that finished 3-3 after extra time and had to be settled by a nerve-wracking penalty shootout.—
Patrick Smith,
NBC News,
19 Dec. 2022
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If Harris can bring together a family with Indian, African, and Jewish heritage, America can glory in its diversity.—
Fintan O’Toole,
The New York Review of Books,
26 Aug. 2020
Verb
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All these novels exult in esoterica, daring the reader to open a web browser and follow up on Énard’s anecdotes and curious historical divagations.—
Nicholas Dames,
Harpers Magazine,
29 Apr. 2025
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But, once more, the most patient and woebegone fans in the history of this league have to wait again, while the Mavericks’ and Spurs’ fan bases again exult.—
David Aldridge,
New York Times,
13 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Preen.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/preen. Accessed 12 Jun. 2025.
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