pare

verb

ˈper

pared; paring

Synonyms of pare next

transitive verb

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

pare apples

paring his nails

: to diminish or reduce by or as if by paring

pare expenses

the novel was pared down to 200 pages

parer noun

Example Sentences

The company has to find a way to pare expenses. pared the stray branches on the tree

Recent Examples on the Web In a July 2019 cover story for Billboard, Joel said that his relationship with Roderick was a big part of his decision to pare back his work. —

Kirsty Hatcher, Peoplemag, 16 May 2023 Food Cocktails and coffee, beer and cider, chocolate and wine: Where to get L.A.’s best drinks Dec. 6, 2022 To fit dozens of volumes of text into a miniseries, Dang Tran had to pare down the 12 wines that needed to be identified in the manga to only three. —

Stephanie Breijo, Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2023 Those words try to pare down the event while simultaneously acknowledging—and brushing off—its meaning. —

Claire Hodgdon, Longreads, 25 Apr. 2023 Hoffman interiors tend to be pared back yet gently layered, with a sober beauty that eschews campy old-world flourishes. —

Catherine Hong, ELLE Decor, 20 Apr. 2023 That would force the I.R.S. to scale back its overhaul. House Republicans in January voted to pare the allocation, and Republican reaction to the report on Thursday indicated that the political fight over the I.R.S. will only intensify. —

Alan Rappeport, New York Times, 6 Apr. 2023 And when the Times pared down the solution list to match its editorial standards, some players who didn't refresh their browsers would be out of sync with their friends. —

Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 24 Mar. 2023 Credit Suisse shares were almost 60% lower by 7:45 a.m. New York time, paring some of their losses from earlier in Monday’s trading session. —

Chloe Taylor, Fortune, 20 Mar. 2023 This included shortening the workweek and drastically paring down the menu. —

Michael Bociurkiw, CNN, 16 Mar. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pare.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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.