pruning
Americannoun
-
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.
-
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.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pruning
First recorded in 1540–50; prun(e) 2 ( def. ) + -ing 1 ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Investor sentiment will be driven by net debt reductions and pruning of the portfolio, he adds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Shafer noticed he could wear a T-shirt while pruning trees instead of the usual hooded sweatshirt and knitted hat.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
They’re pruning good investors who had a down year and keeping mediocre ones who got lucky.
From MarketWatch ● May 12, 2026
"An initially exuberant connectivity, followed by selective pruning, might be exactly what enables this integration."
From Science Daily ● May 3, 2026
He told this to the little girl while he was pruning the rosebushes, simply to entertain her, because he adored her and it made him sad that she was mute.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
Nearby, prunings from a carrotwood tree lay in a parkway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2025
If you have ivy in your garden, please landscape responsibly, and dispose of any ivy prunings carefully, as many a ruined landscape began with unscrupulous gardeners discarding yard waste that included bits of ivy.
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2017
The Bucket Jockey is an effective but inexpensive way to organize and easily transport your tools with a bucket for holding your prunings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2016
The move mirrors similar prunings around the country at other public colleges and universities that are reeling from steep drops in state aid.
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2010
The prunings should be tied up and saved for staking purposes; they are of the utmost value for all kinds of slender-growing plants.
From Trees and Shrubs for English Gardens by Cook, Ernest Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
