Sample sentences for PARE - verbalworkout.com

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Definition

to cut or reduce

The exact meaning of pare can depend upon its context. For example:

"Pare the budget." — cut it to make it smaller
"Pare the fat from the meat," or "Pare the apple." — cut away an outer layer or peel
"Use a paring knife." — a small general purpose chef's knife often used for peeling
"Pare the edge, so it will fit." — cut small bits or shavings from

The candidate promised to pare the deficit.

pare potatoes
Thornton Wilder -- Our Town

pare = peel (cut off the outer skin—possibly with a knife rather than a peeler)

At her suggestion, I pare off my nails with a knife.
Suzanne Collins -- Mockingjay
Mrs. Wainwright took a paring knife from her apron pocket and slipped it under the mattress.
John Steinbeck -- The Grapes of Wrath
While Ruana's hands grew wet and swollen paring apple after apple, she began to say the word in her mind, the one she had avoided for years: divorce.
Alice Sebold -- The Lovely Bones
And we'd been a week on the way last night, when up pops a New Moon as thin as a nail-paring, as if we had never stayed no time in the Elvish country.
J.R.R. Tolkien -- The Fellowship of the Ring
He rubbed his feet with his hands and then drew his knife from its sheath and began paring bits of skin from his toes.
Richard Preston -- The Hot Zone
It was barred off, beginning with the Rue du Pare-Royal.
Victor Hugo -- Les Miserables
He was hungry, and his meager diet had pared his body down to a feral scrawn of gristle and bone, but he seemed to be in reasonably good health.
Jon Krakauer -- Into the Wild
He needed a shave; his fingernails needed paring.
Jhumpa Lahiri -- The Namesake
With a faint smile, Branna plied her paring knife.
Nora Roberts -- Dark Witch
The neighborhood guards Pare armed, needless to say.
Neal Stephenson -- Snow Crash
He'll undertake to torture any number of cats, if their teeth be drawn and their claws pared.
Emily Bronte -- Wuthering Heights
In any case, let Thisby have clean linen; and let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall hang out for the lion's claws.
William Shakespeare -- A Midsummer Night's Dream
"Would yeh be turible of-fenced if'n Oi pared et down tae Schiem?"
Patrick Rothfuss -- The Name of the Wind
The Glatun, between the power of implants and the power of their AIs. had pared away most of the excess.
John Ringo -- Live Free or Die
Sethe touched the fruit and picked up the paring knife.
Toni Morrison -- Beloved
Either way, Carlos was pre-pared.
Ted Dekker -- Black: The Birth of Evil
On the chopping board in front of her she's cutting more, with a paring knife, her large hands deft, indifferent.
Margaret Atwood -- The Handmaid's Tale
The soldier sat in his pants with the gun between his knees paring his nails and biting off the loose skin.
Graham Greene -- The Power and the Glory

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