Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

preen

/pɹiːn/ noun, verb

Forms preens preening preened prin

  1. noun A forked tool used by clothiers for dressing cloth.
  2. noun (dialectal) A pin.
  3. noun (dialectal) A bodkin; brooch.
  4. verb (transitive) To pin; fasten.
  5. verb (of birds, ambitransitive) To groom; to trim or dress the feathers with the beak.
  6. verb (of people, intransitive, reflexive) To spend time making oneself attractive and admiring one's appearance, e.g. in front of a mirror.
  7. verb (intransitive) To show off, posture, or smarm.
  8. verb (transitive) To flatter.
  9. verb (transitive) To comb; to make orderly.
  10. verb (transitive) To trim up, as trees.
  11. verb (transitive, more generally) To improve the appearance of; groom; prettify.

Synonyms

primp smarten up flex fluff one's feathers swagger aura farm boulevardier cut a wide swath cut it fat cut round exhibitionize figure away flamboast flaunt floss gallery high-side let one's nuts hang ostent ostentate plume congratulate dress

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.

Variant of prune (by influence of preen above). Attested in Chaucer (c. 1395) in the variants preyneth, prayneth, proyneth, prunyht, pruneth, from Old French proignier (“to trim the feathers with the beak”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A forked tool used by clothiers in dressing cloth.
  2. verb To dress with, or as with, a preen; to trim or dress with the beak, as the feathers; --said of birds. Derham.
  3. verb To trim up, as trees. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Etymology [AS. preón a clasp, bodkin; akin to D. priem punch, bodkin, awl, G. pfriem, Icel. prjonn a knitting needle, pin, Dan. preen a bodkin, punch.]

Etymology [See Preen, n.; or cf. Prune.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “preen”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details