as in to shave
to make (something) shorter or smaller with the use of a cutting instrument
pruned the dead branches from the old apple tree
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of prune
The fence corners are clean, so are the ditches, and the fruit trees have been pruned and sprayed.
—
Jack O'Connor, Outdoor Life, 23 Oct. 2025
Original price: $16.99 These Pine Tree Tool bamboo working gloves are a must for raking, pruning, hauling and anything else your fall yard cleanup requires.
—Nora Colomer
May Earn A Commission If You Buy Through Our Referral Links. This Content Was Created By A Team That Works Independently From The Fox Newsroom., FOXNews.com, 16 Oct. 2025
Labor, then and now, is hard to find or unsustainable to pay, so the family mostly relies on relatives for pruning, thinning, spraying, harvesting and marketing.
—Shaun McKinnon, AZCentral.com, 14 Oct. 2025
Ronan Day-Lewis seems to have plucked and pruned the best lessons from them, too.
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 28 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for prune
Jack O'Connor, Outdoor Life, 23 Oct. 2025
Original price: $16.99 These Pine Tree Tool bamboo working gloves are a must for raking, pruning, hauling and anything else your fall yard cleanup requires.
—Nora Colomer
May Earn A Commission If You Buy Through Our Referral Links. This Content Was Created By A Team That Works Independently From The Fox Newsroom., FOXNews.com, 16 Oct. 2025
Labor, then and now, is hard to find or unsustainable to pay, so the family mostly relies on relatives for pruning, thinning, spraying, harvesting and marketing.
—Shaun McKinnon, AZCentral.com, 14 Oct. 2025
Ronan Day-Lewis seems to have plucked and pruned the best lessons from them, too.
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 28 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for prune
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prune
Verb
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Deeper cuts could be a 'stretch' Glendale has already asked residents to shave down their water use after shortages hit the Colorado River.—
Austin Corona,
AZCentral.com,
6 Nov. 2025
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And the only questions she's getting asked are about shaving her head.—
Patrick Ryan,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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An emergency order by the FAA on Thursday said airlines have to cut traffic by 4%, resulting in about 800 flight cancellations for Friday that increased to over 1,000 throughout the day, according to FlightAware.—
Emma Tucker,
CNN Money,
8 Nov. 2025
-
Southwest Airlines cut about 120 flights Friday.—
JOSH FUNK,
Arkansas Online,
8 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Fears aired an alley-oop dunk to forward Carson Cooper on the next play, the first score of the second half, to trim Arkansas’ lead to 39-38.—
Matt Byrne,
Arkansas Online,
9 Nov. 2025
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The key is to fold the scarf over itself to create volume and to look for a lace trim that leaves the hem frayed, so as not to look too formal.—
Arancha Gamo,
Glamour,
9 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Cormican and sheriff’s deputies spent that afternoon traveling back and forth across the lake at about four miles an hour, as if mowing a lawn, pulling the towfish on a cable behind them.—
Jamie Thompson,
The Atlantic,
6 Nov. 2025
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Keep your lawn mowed regularly and remove leaf litter that can provide cover.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
6 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Prune.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prune. Accessed 12 Nov. 2025.
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