prune

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pɹuːn/
  • Rhymes: -uːn

Etymology 1

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.

Noun

prune (plural prunes)

  1. (obsolete) A plum.
  2. The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.
  3. (slang) An old woman, especially a wrinkly one.
Synonyms
  • see Thesaurus:old woman
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Old French proignier (“to trim the feathers with the beak”), earlier prooignier, ultimately from Latin pro- ("front") + rotundus (“round”) 'to round-off the front'.

Verb

prune (third-person singular simple present prunes, present participle pruning, simple past and past participle pruned)

  1. (transitive, horticulture) 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.
    • Milton
      Our delightful task / To prune these growing plants, and tend these flowers.
  2. (transitive, figuratively) To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).
    to prune a budget, or an essay
    • Francis Bacon
      taking into consideration how they [laws] are to be pruned and reformed
  3. (transitive, computer science) To remove unnecessary branches from a tree data structure.
  4. (obsolete) To preen; to prepare; to dress.
    • Shakespeare
      His royal bird / Prunes the immortal wing and cloys his beak.
    • John Dryden, All For Love, Epilogue.
      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.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)
  5. (intransitive, informal) To become wrinkled like a dried plum, as the fingers and toes do when kept submerged in water.
    • 2005, Alycia Ripley, Traveling with an Eggplant (page 111)
      I hardly left that spot in my pool that month even when my fingers pruned and chlorine dried out my skin.
Derived terms
Translations

Anagrams

French

Etymology

From Old French prune, from Vulgar Latin *prūna, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin prūnum.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /pʁyn/
  • audio(file)

Noun

prune f (plural prunes)

  1. plum
  2. (slang) ticket (“traffic citation”)

Derived terms

Further reading

Latin

Noun

prūne

  1. vocative singular of prūnus

Old French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *prūna, feminine singular formed from the neutral plural of Latin prūnum.

Noun

prune f (oblique plural prunes, nominative singular prune, nominative plural prunes)

  1. plum (fruit)

Descendants

Romanian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpru.ne/

Noun

prune

  1. plural of prună
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.