pare

verb

ˈper 

pared; paring

transitive verb

1

: to trim off an outside, excess, or irregular part of

pare apples

paring his nails

2

: to diminish or reduce by or as if by paring

pare expenses

the novel was pared down to 200 pages

parer noun

Synonyms

• shave
• cut
• trim

Examples of pare in a Sentence

The company has to find a way to pare expenses.

pared the stray branches on the tree

Recent Examples on the Web

Once its largest shareholder with a 40% stake, Lefkofsky stepped down from an active leadership role at Groupon in 2015 and has since pared his holdings to just under 10%. —Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune, 3 Sep. 2025

Dress it up with a pair of tights, a skirt, and some ballet flats, or pare it down with your favorite jeans, a tote bag, and some comfy sneakers. —Amelia McBride, Travel + Leisure, 2 Sep. 2025

Former OpenAI executives have also accused the company of paring back safety resources in the past. —Lisa Eadicicco, CNN Money, 2 Sep. 2025

Moreover, much of what the party advocates for, including rejecting gender equality, paring down individual freedoms in the constitution, reverting to the prewar educational system, and adhering to outright historical revisionism, has not gone mainstream. —Mireya Solís, Foreign Affairs, 1 Sep. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English paren, borrowed from Anglo-French parer "to make, prepare, adorn, trim, cut off," going back to Latin parāre "to supply, provide, make ready," probably verbal derivative of a nominal base *paro-, formed from parere "to give birth to, bring into being, produce" — more at parturient

Note: The Latin verb is alternatively taken as a direct outcome of an Indo-European present formation *pr̥h₃-i̯e-, but the phonetic development has been questioned. Most of the numerous compound verbs formed from parāre, as apparāre "to prepare" (see apparatus), comparāre "to prepare, collect, muster," disparāre "to divide" (see disparate), praeparāre "to furnish beforehand, prepare," reparāre "to recover, restore" (see repair entry 1), sēparāre "to divide" (see separate entry 1), fail to show vowel weakening. The verbs imperāre "to levy, order, command" (see emperor) and properāre "to hasten" (perhaps of independent origin) are for uncertain reasons exceptions. The Romance development in sense from "prepare" to a more concrete "cut (the peeling from), trim"—well attested in Old French—has become virtually the only sense in English, with the broader French meaning "prepare, adorn, decorate" being only marginally attested.

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing pare

• pare to the bone

Rhymes for pare

• air
• ayre
• bahr
• bare
• blare
• care
• chair
• claire
• ere
• err
• eyre
• fair

Kids Definition

pare

verb

ˈpa(ə)r 

ˈpe(ə)r

pared; paring

1

: to trim off the outside or the ends of

2

: to reduce as if by paring