PARING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Paring

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/pˈɛrɪŋ/ Listen

noun

Paring n.

The act of cutting off the surface or extremites of anything.

That which is pared off. "Pare off the surface of the earth, and with the parings raise your hills."

verb

Pare v. t. (past & past part. pared; pres. part. paring)

To cut off, or shave off, the superficial substance or extremities of; as, to pare an apple; to pare a horse's hoof.

To remove; to separate; to cut or shave, as the skin, rind, or outside part, from anything; followed by off or away; as, to pare off the rind of fruit; to pare away redundancies.

Fig.: To diminish the bulk of; to reduce; to lessen. "The king began to pare a little the privilege of clergy."

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Etymology of 'Paring'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Paring" Quotes from Famous Books

... Caleb was paring apples for pies on the other side of the hearth. Ephraim looked across at him desperately. "I want to play ...

— Pembroke - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... her hands; they were of marvellous shape and tint, but I missed a little sickle-shaped scar from the joint of the left thumb. I knew the story of that scar. I had seen the child Nelly run to her mother when the knife slipped while she was paring a piece of cocoanut for the Saturday pie-baking. That scar was part of Helen; I loved it. I felt a sudden revolt against this goddess who usurped little Nelly's place, and said that she had changed. Why was she looking at ...

— The Bacillus of Beauty - A Romance of To-day • Harriet Stark

... effect? What have you and I to do with men and women who do not, cannot, could not, will not, ought not, have not, did, and by all the thirsty Demons that serve the lamps of the cavern of the Sibyl, shall not count in the scheme of things as worth one little paring of Rabelais' little finger nail? What are they that they should interfere with the great mirific and most assuaging and comfortable feast of wit to which I am now about to introduce you!—for know that I take you now into the lecture-hall and put you at the feet of ...

— On Nothing & Kindred Subjects • Hilaire Belloc

... announcement—"Apartements a louer"—suspended above the door. Outside one of these houses sat two men with a little table between them. They were playing at dominoes, and wore the common blue blouse of the mechanic class. A woman stood by, paring celery, with an infant playing on the mat inside the door and a cat purring at her feet. It was a pleasant group. The men looked honest, the woman good-tempered, and the house exquisitely clean; so the diplomatic Brunet went forward to negotiate, while I walked up and down outside. ...

— In the Days of My Youth • Amelia Ann Blandford Edwards

... had acquitted himself tolerably at a Ball or an Assembly; to which one of the Company added, that a certain Knot of Ladies took him for a Wit. He was cut off in the Flower of his Age by the Blow of a Paring-Shovel, having been surprized by an eminent Citizen, as he was tendring some ...

— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

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