PRUNING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does pruning mean? 

• PRUNING (noun)
  The noun PRUNING has 2 senses:

1. something that has been pruned off of a plant

2. the act of trimming a plant

  Familiarity information: PRUNING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRUNING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something that has been pruned off of a plant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("pruning" is a kind of...):

cutting (a piece cut off from the main part of something)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of trimming a plant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("pruning" is a kind of...):

clipping; trim; trimming (cutting down to the desired size or shape)

Derivation:

prune (cultivate, tend, and cut back the growth of)

 Context examples 

These findings, along with evidence from other studies, suggested to the researchers that C4 might work with other components of the classical complement cascade to promote synaptic pruning.

(A biological mechanism for schizophrenia, NIH)

Further tests showed that the transplanted RPE cells were pruning photoreceptors via phagocytosis, another RPE function that helps keep photoreceptors healthy.

(Researchers rescue photoreceptors, prevent blindness in animal models of retinal degeneration, National Institutes of Health)

So much has religion done for me; turning the original materials to the best account; pruning and training nature.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)