pruning

American  

[proo-ning] / ˈpru nɪŋ /

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.

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Etymology

Origin of pruning

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

Example Sentences

Instead the final four candidates for the job were a range of eager submissives, each straining to appear enthusiastic to pick up the pruning shears and start cutting rates by the bunch:

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 2, 2026

Companies are pruning underperforming legacy brands and doubling down on faster-growing categories.

From Barron's • Dec. 28, 2025

Too much pruning has been linked to the onset of schizophrenia.

From Science Daily • Nov. 6, 2025

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

From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2025

Ella found her godmother pruning belladonnas inside her dark cabinet of Underworld plants.

From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton