proin

Verb (1)

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

1. (informal, intransitive) To 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.2005, Alycia Ripley, Traveling with an Eggplant, page 111

Verb (2)

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

1. (transitive) 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.
2. (figuratively, transitive) To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).
   • to prune a budget, or an essay
3. (transitive) 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.1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 229
4. (Internet, transitive) 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. (transitive) To remove unnecessary branches from a tree data structure.

See all 12 meanings of prune