Definition of "prune"

prune¹

/pɹuːn/

noun
plural prunes
1. (obsolete) A plum.
2. The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.
3. (figurative) Something wrinkly like a prune.
  Quotations
  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.
  1970, Dana Densmore, “Without You And Within You”, in No More Fun & Games, volume 4, page 55
4. (slang) An old woman, especially a wrinkly one.
verb
third-person singular simple present prunes, present participle pruning, simple past and past participle pruned
1. (intransitive, informal) To become wrinkled like a dried plum, as the fingers and toes do when kept submerged in water.
  Quotations
  I hardly left that spot in my pool that month even when my fingers pruned and chlorine dried out my skin.
  2005, Alycia Ripley, Traveling with an Eggplant, page 111

prune²

/pɹuːn/

verb
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.
  Quotations
  But poore old man, thou prun'ſt a rotten tree, / That cannot ſo much as a bloſſome yeelde
  c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii], page 191
  Our delightful task / To prune these growing plants, and tend these flowers.
  1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
2. (transitive, figuratively) To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).
  Quotations
  taking into consideration how they [laws] are to be pruned and reformed
  1605, Francis Bacon, “(please specify |book=1 or 2)”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for Henrie Tomes, […]
3. (transitive) To remove (something unnecessary) for the sake of cutting down or shortening that which it was previously part of.
  Quotations
  When internal dissension and a decline in popularity set in, Johnny was pruned from the Crests.
  1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, page 229
4. (transitive, computer science) To remove unnecessary branches from a tree data structure.
5. (obsolete) To preen; to prepare; to dress.
  Quotations
  She gins her feathers fowle disfigured Prowdly to prune, and sett on every side.
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
  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.
  1677 (first performance), John Dryden, “Epilogue”, in All for Love: Or, The World Well Lost. A Tragedy, […], [London]: […] Tho[mas] Newcomb, for Henry Herringman, […], published 1678

Definition of "prune"

prune1

noun

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verb

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prune2

verb

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prune¹

prune²