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:
Is Microsoft laying off 3,200 employees from the Xbox division just a new boss coming in and pruning an overgrown asset, or is it a sign that console gaming is coming to the end?
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026
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
She used to spend long hours in the garden, weeding and sowing, pruning and picking, her neck arched elegantly as a bird’s, with her black hair coming loose around her face.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
Nearby, prunings from a carrotwood tree lay in a parkway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2025
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
But in reality Sannino’s gets very few takers for its midwinter vine prunings.
From New York Times ● Dec. 2, 2010
Rubber-tree prunings and sawn rubber trees obtained by thinning-out may be used in mixture with dead wood, provided the logs are stacked to dry in the sun for some weeks before use.
From The Preparation of Plantation Rubber by Morgan, Sidney
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.
