Adjacent Words

Pare definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PARE, v.t. [L. paro; Gr. lame; to mutilate; Heb. to create; to cut off. The primary sense is to thrust or drive, hence to drive off, to separate, to stop by setting or repelling, as in parry, or to drive off or out, as in separating or producing.]
1. To cut off, as the superficial substance or extremities of a thing; to shave off with a sharp instrument; as, to pare an apple or an orange; to pare the nails; to pare a horse's hoof; to pare land in agriculture.
2. To diminish by little and little.
The king began to pare a little the privilege of clergy.
When pare is followed by the thing diminished, the noun is in the objective case; as, to pare the nails. When the thing separated is the object, pare is followed by off or away; as, to pare off the rind of fruit; to pare away redundances.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: decrease gradually or bit by bit [syn: pare, pare down]
2: cut small bits or pare shavings from; "whittle a piece of wood" [syn: whittle, pare]
3: strip the skin off; "pare apples" [syn: skin, peel, pare]
4: remove the edges from and cut down to the desired size; "pare one's fingernails"; "trim the photograph"; "trim lumber" [syn: pare, trim]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (pared; paring) Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French parer to make, prepare, pare, from Latin parare to prepare, acquire; akin to Latin parere to give birth to, produce, Greek porein to give, present, Sanskrit p???ti he gives Date: 14th century 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

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. 1 a trim or shave (esp. fruit and vegetables) by cutting away the surface or edge. b (often foll. by off, away) cut off (the surface or edge). 2 (often foll. by away, down) diminish little by little. Derivatives: parer n. Etymology: ME f. OF parer adorn, peel (fruit), f. L parare prepare

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pare Pare, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pared; p. pr. & vb. n. Paring.] [F. parer to pare, as a horse's hoofs, to dress or curry, as, leather, to clear, as anchors or cables, to parry, ward off, fr. L. parare to prepare. Cf. Empire, Parade, Pardon, Parry, Prepare.] 1. To cut off, or shave off, the superficial substance or extremities of; as, to pare an apple; to pare a horse's hoof. 2. To remove; to separate; to cut or shave, as the skin, ring, or outside part, from anything; -- followed by off or away; as; to pare off the ring of fruit; to pare away redundancies. 3. Fig.: To diminish the bulk of; to reduce; to lessen. The king began to pare a little the privilege of clergy. --Bacon.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pares, paring, pared) 1. When you pare something, or pare part of it off or away, you cut off its skin or its outer layer. Pare the brown skin from the meat with a very sharp knife... He took out a slab of cheese, pared off a slice and ate it hastily. ...thinly pared lemon rind. VERB: V n from n, V n with adv, V-ed see also paring 2. If you pare something down or back, or if you pare it, you reduce it. The number of Ministries has been pared down by a third... The luxury tax won't really do much to pare down the budget deficit... Local authorities must pare their budgets. VERB: be V-ed adv, V n with adv, V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Peel (by the use of a knife). 2. Clip, cut, shave off. 3. Diminish (gradually), lessen, reduce.

Moby Thesaurus

abridge, abscind, amputate, annihilate, ax, ban, bar, bark, beat down, bisect, bob, break, butcher, carve, cheapen, chop, cleave, clip, compress, crop, cull, curtail, cut, cut away, cut back, cut down, cut in two, cut off, cut out, cut prices, damp, dampen, decline, decorticate, decrease, deduct, deflate, depreciate, depress, devaluate, dichotomize, diminish, dissever, dive, dock, downgrade, eliminate, enucleate, eradicate, except, excise, exclude, excoriate, extinguish, extirpate, fall, fall in price, fissure, flay, gash, give way, hack, halve, hew, incise, isolate, jew down, jigsaw, knock off, lance, lessen, lop, lower, mark down, mutilate, nip, nose-dive, peel, pick out, plummet, plunge, prune, reduce, rend, retrench, rive, roll back, root out, rule out, sag, saw, scale down, scalp, scissor, set apart, set aside, sever, shave, shave off, shear, shorten, shuck, simplify, skin, slash, slice, slit, slump, snip, split, stamp out, step down, strike off, strip, strip off, sunder, take from, take off, take out, tear, trim, truncate, tune down, whittle, wipe out