prune

/prun/

/prun/

Other forms: pruning; prunes; pruned

To prune means to clip, crop, cut back, and weed out. Pruning usually happens to overgrown trees and bushes, but can also be helpful for wild eyebrows and guest lists that are too long.

You may have also heard of another form of prune: the kind you eat. But other than dried plums, the word is generally used in verb form to describe giving something a much needed trim. Gardeners prune plants, cutting back dead branches and weak parts so they can thrive and grow better. Companies prune budgets to cut back on unnecessary spending. And you might need to prune your baseball hat collection if you're running out of places to put them.

Definitions of prune

1. verb

   cultivate, tend, and cut back the growth of
   synonyms: clip, crop, cut back, dress, lop, snip, trim

   types:

   shear

   cut with shears

   poll, pollard

   convert into a pollard

   pinch, top

   cut the top off

   disbud

   thin out buds to improve the quality of the remaining flowers

   tail

   remove the stalk of fruits or berries

   type of:

   thin out

   make sparse
2. verb

   weed out unwanted or unnecessary things
   synonyms: cut, rationalise, rationalize

   type of:

   do away with, eliminate, extinguish, get rid of

   terminate, end, or take out
3. noun

   dried plum
   type of:

   dried fruit

   fruit preserved by drying