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prune

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.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: prune

1
v
cultivate, tend, and cut back the growth of
2
n
dried plum
FULL DEFINITIONS OF: prune
1

v cultivate, tend, and cut back the growth of

Synonyms:
clip, crop, cut back, dress, lop, snip, trim
Types:
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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

v 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
2

n dried plum

Type of:
dried fruit
fruit preserved by drying
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