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 of pare

• 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

But while some retailers are offering major deals in the holiday week ahead, others appear to be paring back the potential savings—or at least spreading them out more over time. —Connor Greene, Time, 25 Nov. 2025

But until now, none of the DPANN species had genomes quite this pared back. —Jake Buehler, Quanta Magazine, 24 Nov. 2025

India’s Nifty 50 was flat in early trading, while the BSE Sensex index pared gains to hover above the flatline. —Nur Hikmah Md Ali, CNBC, 24 Nov. 2025

With the holiday gift season on the horizon, fall is the ideal time to declutter, pare down, donate, and discard unused items before the holidays are in full swing. —Rebecca Jones, Southern Living, 19 Nov. 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