Prune vs Weed - What's the difference?
prune | weed |
(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
A plant.
# (label) Any plant growing in cultivated ground to the injury of the crop or desired vegetation, or to the disfigurement of the place; an unsightly, useless, or injurious plant.
#*{{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)
, title= # (label) A species of plant considered harmful to the environment or regarded as a nuisance.
# Short for duckweed.
# Underbrush; low shrubs.
#* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
#* (1809-1892)
A drug or the like made from the leaves of a plant.
# Marijuana.
# Tobacco.
# A cigar.
A horse unfit to breed from.
A puny person; one who has with little physical strength.
A sudden illness or relapse, often attended with fever, which attacks women in childbed.
Something unprofitable or troublesome; anything useless.
(archaic) A garment or piece of clothing.
(archaic) Clothing collectively; clothes, dress.
* 1599 ,
* 1819 , Walter Scott, Ivanhoe
(archaic) An article of dress worn in token of grief; a mourning garment or badge.
(archaic) widow's weeds : female mourning apparel
* Milton
(wee)
As nouns the difference between prune and weed
is that prune is a plum while weed is a plant.As verbs the difference between prune and weed
is that prune is to remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive while weed is to remove unwanted vegetation from a cultivated area.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
* ----weed
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds . Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.}}
- one rushing forth out of the thickest weed
- A wild and wanton pard/ Crouched fawning in the weed .
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* goutweed * hawkweed * horseweed * in the weeds * knapweed * knotweed * milkweed * pigweed * ragweed * tumbleweedSee also
* grow like a weed * weedsEtymology 2
From (etyl) .See also
* weed outEtymology 3
From (etyl) , from which also wad, wadmal. Cognate to Dutch lijnwaad, gewaad, German Wat.Noun
(en noun)- DON PEDRO. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds ;
- And then to Leonato's we will go.
- CLAUDIO. And Hymen now with luckier issue speed's,
- Than this for whom we rend'red up this woe!
- These two dignified persons were followed by their respective attendants, and at a more humble distance by their guide, whose figure had nothing more remarkable than it derived from the usual weeds of a pilgrim.
- He wore a weed on his hat.
- In a mourning weed , with ashes upon her head, and tears abundantly flowing.
