preen

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
preen/priːn/

▶verb

• 1 (of a bird) tidy and clean its feathers with its beak.

• 2 (of a person) devote effort to making oneself look attractive.

• 3 (preen oneself) congratulate or pride oneself.

– derivatives
preener noun.

– origin ME: appar. a var. of obs. prune (based on L. ungere ‘anoint’), in the same sense, assoc. with Scots and northern English dial. preen ‘pierce, pin’ (because of the ‘pricking’ action of the bird's beak).