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

• bob
• clip
• crop
• cut
• cut back
• dock
• lop (off)
• nip
• poll
• prune
• shave
• shear
• snip
• 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

Four years ago, Joseph R. Biden Jr. collected $62 million (nearly $76 million in 2025 dollars) for his inauguration, though that celebration was pared down because of the coronavirus pandemic. —Theodore Schleifer, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2025

Meanwhile, the euro was choppy on Monday, paring gains against the greenback to fall 0.3% in the afternoon. —Jenni Reid, CNBC, 14 Apr. 2025

In less than 100 days, Trump did all the above while allowing billionaire Elon Musk to dictate to him what federal programs, such as Social Security and Medicaid, should be pared back, thereby threatening the livelihood and health care of millions of Americans. —Bea L. Hines, Miami Herald, 12 Apr. 2025

But markets are still flailing, as stocks pared down Wednesday’s gain on Thursday. —Danielle Chemtob, Forbes.com, 11 Apr. 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