pare

See also: Appendix:Variations of "pare"

English

Etymology

From Middle English paren, from Old French parer (“to arrange, prepare, trim”), from Latin parō (“I prepare, arrange; I provide, furnish; I resolve, purpose”) (related to pariō (“I bear, I give birth to; I spawn, produce, beget; I procure, acquire”)), from a Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to bring forward, bring forth”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: pâr, IPA^(key): /pɛə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: pâr, IPA^(key): /pɛɹ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /peː/

  • Audio (General Australian):

    (file)

• (New Zealand, without the cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /ˈpeə/
• (New Zealand, cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /ˈpiə/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈpeɹ/
• (Lancashire, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /ˈpɜː(ɹ)/
• Homophones: pair, pear, pere; peer, pier (both cheer–chair merger); per, purr (both fair–fur merger)
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)

Verb

pare (third-person singular simple present pares, present participle paring, simple past and past participle pared)

1. (transitive) To remove the outer covering or skin of something with a cutting device, typically a knife.

   Victor pared some apples in preparation to make a tart.

2. (transitive, often with down or back) To reduce, diminish or trim gradually something as if by cutting off.

   Albert had to pare his options down by disregarding anything beyond his meager budget.

   • 1859, Henry David Thoreau, A Plea for Captain John Brown‎:

     Also referring to the deeds of certain Border Ruffians, he said, rapidly paring away his speech, like an experienced soldier, keeping a reserve of force and meaning, “They had a perfect right to be hung.”

   • 1960 April, “The European Summer Timetables”, in Trains Illustrated, page 223:

     From May 29 another 10 min. are being pared from the southbound journey, and the time over the 504.4 miles from Paris to Hendaye will come down to 6 hr. 58 min., an average of 72.4 m.p.h. with two intermediate stops.

3. To trim the hoof of a horse.
4. (Ireland, slang) To sharpen a pencil.

Synonyms

(remove skin): peel, skin

Derived terms

• cheeseparing
• pare away
• pare down
• pare off
• parer
• pare to the bone
• paring
• paring knife

Translations

To remove the outer covering or skin of something with a knife

Bulgarian: беля (bg) (belja) Chinese: Mandarin: 削皮 (zh) (xiāopí), 去皮 (zh) (qùpĺ) Czech: oříznout pf, seříznout pf, okrájet pf Dutch: pellen (nl), schillen (nl), snoeien (nl), (af)knippen Finnish: kuoria (fi) French: éplucher (fr), peler (fr) German: schälen (de), pellen (de), abschälen (de), abschneiden (de), abhobeln (de) Ido: rekortar (io) Russian: очищать (ru) (očiščatʹ) Slovene: lupiti, olupiti (sl), obrezati Spanish: pelar (es), mondar (es) Swedish: skala (sv) Yiddish: שאָבן (shobn), שנײַדן (shnaydn), אָפּשיילן (opsheyln), אַרומשנײַדן (arumshnaydn)

To reduce or trim something (as if) by cutting off

Bulgarian: изрязвам (bg) (izrjazvam), подрязвам (bg) (podrjazvam) Czech: okrájet pf, ořezat pf Dutch: pellen (nl), schillen (nl), beknibbelen (nl), besnoeien (nl) Finnish: leikata (fi), supistaa (fi) French: rogner (fr) German: beschneiden (de), zurückschneiden (de), trimmen (de), stutzen (de), zurechtstutzen (de), kappen (de) Ido: rekortar (io) Russian: уре́зать (ru) (urézatʹ) Swedish: skala ned, göra avkall, minska (sv)

trim a hoof

Swedish: verka (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Irish: (please verify) smiot Korean: (please verify) 바르다 (ko) (bareuda)

Anagrams

• Earp, Pera, Rape, aper, pear, prae-, præ-, rape, reap