prune

¹

[ proon ]

noun

1. a variety of plum that dries without spoiling.
2. such a plum when dried.
3. any plum.

prune

²

[ proon ]

verb (used with object)

, pruned, prun·ing.

1. to cut or lop off (twigs, branches, or roots).
2. to cut or lop superfluous or undesired twigs, branches, or roots from; trim.
3. to rid or clear of (anything superfluous or undesirable).
4. to remove (anything considered superfluous or undesirable).

prune

³

[ proon ]

verb (used with object)

, pruned, prun·ing.

1. Archaic. to preen.

prune

¹

/ pruːn /

verb

1. See preen
   an archaic word for preen 1

prune

²

/ pruːn /

verb

1. to remove (dead or superfluous twigs, branches, etc) from (a tree, shrub, etc), esp by cutting off
2. to remove (anything undesirable or superfluous) from (a book, etc)

prune

³

/ pruːn /

noun

1. a purplish-black partially dried fruit of any of several varieties of plum tree
2. slang.
   a dull, uninteresting, or foolish person

Derived Forms

• ˈprunable, adjective
• ˈpruner, noun

Other Words From

• prun·a·ble adjective
• prun·a·bil·i·ty [proo-n, uh, -, bil, -i-tee], noun
• prun·er noun
• un·prun·a·ble adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of prune¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English prune, pruna, prum “plum, dried plum, prune,” from Old French prune, pronne, prume, from unrecorded Vulgar Latin prūna, neuter plural (taken as feminine singular) of Latin prūnum “plum,” from Greek proû(m)non, from a language of ancient Anatolia, where the tree and its fruit originated; plum

Origin of prune²

First recorded in 1400–50; from Middle English prouynen, from Middle French prougner, from Old French prooignier, proignier, poroindre “to cut back (vines); prune”; further origin uncertain; perhaps from unrecorded Vulgar Latin prōrotundiāre “to make round, cut in a rounded shape”; perhaps a variant of French provigner “to layer vines,” a derivative of provain “scion,” from Latin propāgin-, stem of propāgō; propagate; rotund ( def )

Origin of prune³

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English prunen, pruynen, proy(g)nen, from Old French poroign-, present stem of poroindre, equivalent to por- (from Latin pro-) + oindre “to anoint”; pro- ¹, unguent; preen ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of prune¹

C15: from Old French proignier to clip, probably from provigner to prune vines, from provain layer (of a plant), from Latin propāgo a cutting

Origin of prune²

C14: from Old French prune, from Latin prūnum plum, from Greek prounon

Idioms and Phrases

see full of beans , def. 2.

Example Sentences

“State-of-the-art search engines use ranking pipelines in which an efficient first-stage uses a query to fetch an initial set of documents from the document collection, and one or more re-ranking algorithms improve and prune the ranking.”

From Search Engine Land

If you’ve picked the right pages to prune and promote, you should see a nice lift in keyword rankings where it matters.

From Search Engine Watch

It’s unclear whether those whom the state fails to prune are entitled to vote after all — or may face prosecution if they do.

From ProPublica

I’ve been seeking out videos on how to get raspberries to fruit and how to properly prune roses, which is far more entertaining than Netflix.

From Outside Online

I think for some of us, maybe it will teach us to prune some of the unnecessary trips in our lives.

From Freakonomics

This was the case with Prune Nourry, a young French sculptress who went to India to create a piece of art interpreting women.

From The Daily Beast

We made the prune based Chocolate Fudge Torte at the bakery and it left everyone slack-jawed.

From The Daily Beast

Whereupon Hard concluded by biting into a large piece of prune pie.

From Project Gutenberg

I used to prune a bit, too, in spare moments, so that by the end of the summer considerable renovation had been accomplished.

From Project Gutenberg

He tells me the right way to plant potatoes and prune apple-trees, and our communion is blest with eupeptic content.

From Project Gutenberg

To cut or prune gooseberry and currant-trees is very simple.

From Project Gutenberg

The prune trees took up the glad news and whispered it to the apricot trees, "It is a boy."

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• cut back
• shave
• shear
• shorten
• snip