Prune vs Abate - What's the difference?
prune | abate |
(obsolete) A plum.
The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.
(slang) An old woman, especially a wrinkly one.
To remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.
* Milton
(figuratively) To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).
* Francis Bacon
(obsolete) To preen; to prepare; to dress.
* Shakespeare
(transitive, obsolete, outside, legal) To put an end to; to cause to cease.
To become null and void.
(legal) To nullify; make void.
(obsolete) To humble; to lower in status; to bring someone down physically or mentally.
*
(obsolete) To be humbled; to be brought down physically or mentally.
(obsolete) To curtail; to deprive.
* 1605 , , King Lear , II.ii:
To reduce in amount, size, or value.
*
To decrease in size, value, or amount.
To moderate; to lessen in force, intensity, to subside.
* 1597 , , [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/575 Essays or Counsels, Civil and Morall] :
* 1855 , , History of England from the Accession of James II, Part 3 , [http://books.google.com/books?id=MN5CNdgbSTYC&pg=PA267 page 267]:
To decrease in intensity or force; to subside.
* :
To deduct or omit.
* 1845 , , The Church History of Britain , Volume 3, [http://books.google.com/books?id=OfefAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA100 page 100]:
To bar or except.
*
To cut away or hammer down, in such a way as to leave a figure in relief, as a sculpture, or in metalwork.
(obsolete) To dull the edge or point of; to blunt.
(archaic) To destroy, or level to the ground.
* 1542 , , The Union of the Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and York :
(legal) To enter a tenement without permission after the owner has died and before the heir takes possession.
----
As nouns the difference between prune and abate
is that prune is (obsolete) a plum while abate is .As a verb prune
is to remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.prune
English
(wikipedia prune)Etymology 1
From (etyl) prune, from (etyl) , a loanword from a language of Asia Minor.Noun
(en noun)Synonyms
* seeDerived terms
* German prune * prune tree * pruney * South African pruneEtymology 2
From (etyl) 'to round-off the front'.Verb
(prun)- A good grape grower will prune his vines once a year.
- Our delightful task / To prune these growing plants, and tend these flowers.
- to prune a budget, or an essay
- taking into consideration how they [laws] are to be pruned and reformed
- His royal bird / Prunes the immortal wing and cloys his beak.
- (Dryden)
- (Spenser)
Derived terms
* (l) * (l)Anagrams
* ----abate
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) abaten, from (etyl) . Cognate to modern French abattre .Verb
(abat)- to abate a nuisance
- The writ has abated .
- to abate a writ
- The hyer that they were in this present lyf, the moore shulle they be abated and defouled in helle.
- Order restrictions and prohibitions to abate an emergency situation.
- She hath abated me of half my train.
- Legacies are liable to be abated entirely or in proportion, upon a deficiency of assets.
- His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated .
- Not that they feel it so, but only to abate the edge of envy.
- The fury of Glengarry rapidly abated .
- We will abate this price from the total.
- Allowing nine thousand parishes (abating the odd hundreds) in England and Wales
- Abating his brutality, he was a very good master.
- The kynge of Scottes planted his siege before the castell of Norham, and sore abated the walls.