prune

nounverbverbattested in dialogue

United Kingdom//pɹuːn//
Canada//pɹun//
Australia//pɹʉːn//
//pɹɪu̯n//

The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.

noun

1
obsoleteA plum.
2
The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.
3
figurativeSomething wrinkly like a prune.
We are not free when we are in the grip of the false conditioning that decrees that we need sex. We are not free if we believe the culture's ominous warnings that we will become "horny" (what a callous, offensive word) and frustrated and neurotic and finally shrivel up into prunes and have to abandon hope of being good, creative, effective people.
4
slangAn old woman, especially a wrinkly one.

Etymology

From Middle English prune, from Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *prūna, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin prūnum, from Ancient Greek προῦνον (proûnon), variant of προῦμνον (proûmnon, “plum”), a loanword from a language of Asia Minor. Doublet of plum.

verb

1
informalTo become wrinkled like a dried plum, as the fingers and toes do when kept submerged in water.
I hardly left that spot in my pool that month even when my fingers pruned and chlorine dried out my skin.

verb

1
To remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.
A good grape grower will prune the vines once a year.
But poore old man, thou prun'ſt a rotten tree, / That cannot ſo much as a bloſſome yeelde
Our delightful task / To prune these growing plants, and tend these flowers.
2
figurativeTo cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).
to prune a budget, or an essay
taking into consideration how they [laws] are to be pruned and reformed
3
To remove (something unnecessary) for the sake of cutting down or shortening that which it was previously part of.
When internal dissension and a decline in popularity set in, Johnny was pruned from the Crests.
4
To remove participation status from or contributed material attributed to users usually deemed inactive or undesirable from an interactive computer service or website for the sake of housekeeping.
5
To remove unnecessary branches from a tree data structure.
6
obsoleteTo trim the feathers with the beak.
7
obsoleteTo preen; to prepare; to dress.
She gins her feathers fowle disfigured Prowdly to prune, and sett on every side.
For 'tis observed of every scribbling man, / He grows a fop as fast as e'er he can; / Prunes up, and asks his oracle, the glass, / If pink or purple best become his face.

Etymology

From Middle English prunen, prounen, proinen, from Old French proignier (“to trim the feathers with the beak”), earlier prooignier. Likely influenced by Middle French rogner, Old French rooignier (“cut, trim”) (from Latin rotundo?), and possibly by Old French provainier (“provine”) (Latin propaginem? whence French provigner). The relation to the noun is thus unclear.

Forms

plural: prunes
past tense: pruned
past participle: pruned
present participle: pruning
third person singular: prunes

Prudence · A female given name from English, one of the Puritan virtue…prudent · Sagacious in adapting means to ends; circumspect in action,…Prue · A female given name.

prune · The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.

pry · To peer closely and curiously, especially at something closed…Pry · A surname.prying · The act of one who pries.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.