pruning

[proo-ning]

noun

1. the act or practice of cutting or lopping off undesired twigs, branches, or roots.

   Some pruning of your tea roses during the summer is useful to encourage growth and flowers.

2. the act or practice of getting rid of undesirable elements or excess.

   You can do this pruning of emails for an hour a day till you're down to an empty inbox.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pruning¹

First recorded in 1540–50; prun(e) ² ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

In El Segundo, crews were repairing roads, pruning trees, schools were in session.

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Crouched in cold mud under a thin Spring rain, vineyard employee Élodie Bonet snaps off unwanted vine shoots with her fingers and pruning clippers.

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“Flashlight,” her new book, grew from a 2020 short story in the New Yorker, and shares that deliberate pruning.

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I am told there may be some "light pruning" but no major changes are expected.

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However, the chancellor suggested a loss of 10,000 roles, which is only a pruning of a workforce of over half a million - especially as it sees 30-40,000 leavers every year.

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