修剪植物
這一群就是核心畫面本身，手上真的拿著剪刀。
verb · B2
To cut some of the branches, stems or dead parts off a tree, bush or other plant, so that it stays healthy and grows better or gives more fruit.
修剪
這個拼法底下其實是2個不同的字，意思沒有關係， 只是長得一樣。下面分開列出來。跳到 修剪 · 梅乾／李子乾
1
prune
verb核心畫面
For the verb, you can picture someone standing in front of a bush with a small pair of . They are not clearing it away. They look, choose one branch, and cut it — the dead one, the one crossing the others, the one stealing the light. The bush ends up smaller and barer, and that is the point: what is left now gets everything. Every use of this verb keeps both halves of the picture, the cut and the reason for it.
動詞的 prune 可以想成一個人拿著小剪刀站在灌木前面。他不是要把整叢清掉。他先看，選定一根枝條，然後剪下去——枯…更多收起
動詞的 prune 可以想成一個人拿著小剪刀站在灌木前面。他不是要把整叢清掉。他先看，選定一根枝條，然後剪下去——枯掉的那根、跟別人交叉的那根、擋住光的那根。剪完整叢變小、變空，而這正是重點：留下來的部分現在拿到全部的養分和光。這個動詞的每個用法都保留了畫面的兩半：剪，以及為什麼剪。From the word’s history
Wiktionary traces the verb to Middle English prunen / proinen, from Old French proignier, to trim the feathers with the beak. A bird pulling the untidy feathers out one by one is the same careful, selective tidying the modern verb describes, and it explains the obsolete falconry sense recorded in the same entry.
依 Wiktionary，這個動詞來自中古英文 prunen / proinen，再往前是古法文 proignier（鳥用嘴整理羽毛）。鳥一根一根把亂掉的羽毛挑掉，跟今天「挑著剪」的畫面完全一樣。同一筆資料裡那個已經廢棄的鷹獵用法（用嘴整理羽毛），就是這條線索留下的痕跡。
Wiktionary entry for prune, verb, etymology 2 (packet source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:302962999)
Two branches
把東西刪小
同一把剪刀，換成看不見的東西：文字、預算、人力、檔案。剪的動作和「剪了會更好」的理由都跟著搬過來。
verb · C1
To make something smaller by taking out the parts you do not need or want, such as words in a piece of writing, costs in a budget, or jobs in a company.
刪減；縮減
A second word, same spelling
2
prune
noun核心畫面
For the fruit, you can picture a plum that has been left in the sun until the juice is gone. What is left sits in your palm: small, almost black, soft, and covered in fine lines. It is sweeter than the fresh fruit was, because all that sweetness is now packed into less space. Hold that shape — small, dark, lined all over — and the other uses of the noun follow from how something looks, not from what it is.
水果的 prune 可以想成一顆李子被放在太陽底下，直到水分都跑光。剩下的東西躺在你手心裡：小小一顆、幾乎全黑、軟軟…更多收起
水果的 prune 可以想成一顆李子被放在太陽底下，直到水分都跑光。剩下的東西躺在你手心裡：小小一顆、幾乎全黑、軟軟的，表面佈滿細紋。它比新鮮的時候更甜，因為原本的甜味現在擠在更小的空間裡。記住這個形狀——小、深色、整顆皺——名詞其他的用法就是從「看起來像這樣」長出來的，跟它實際是什麼無關。From the word’s history
Wiktionary traces the fruit word through Middle English and Old French prune to Latin prunum and Greek proûnon, plum, and notes that it is a doublet of English plum. So plum and prune are the same old word arriving in English by two different roads, which is why English can keep one for the fresh fruit and one for the dried one.
依 Wiktionary，水果的 prune 經由中古英文和古法文 prune，回到拉丁文 prūnum、希臘文 proûnon（李子），而且跟英文的 plum 是同一個字的兩條路（doublet）。所以英文才會一個字留給新鮮的李子、一個字留給曬乾的——它們看起來完全不像，其實是親戚。
Wiktionary entry for prune, noun, etymology 1 (packet source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:302938122)
From the picture
曬乾的李子
這一群就是那顆果乾本身。
noun · B1
A dried plum: a dark, soft, wrinkled fruit that is sweet to eat, often cooked before eating, and often eaten to help the stomach work.
梅乾／李子乾
皺得像李子乾
這一群不再講那顆水果，只借它的長相：小、皺、佈滿細紋。這是外形的比喻，不是同一種東西。
noun · C1
Something dry and lined all over, like a dried plum — most often skin that has been in water a long time, or fruit that has been left until it shrinks.
皺巴巴的東西
Also in this word
verb · C1
If your skin prunes, especially on your fingers and toes, it goes soft and lined from being in water for a long time.
（皮膚泡水）泡皺
原始詞典資料12 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
prunenoun詞源 1/pɹuːn/
- 1
obsoleteA plum.
- 2
The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.
- 3
Something wrinkly like a prune.
- We are not free when we are in the grip of the false conditioning that decrees that we need sex. We are not free if we believe the culture's ominous warnings that we will become "horny" (what a callous, offensive word) and frustrated and neurotic and finally shrivel up into prunes and have to abandon hope of being good, creative, effective people.
- 4
slangAn old woman, especially a wrinkly one.
pruneverb詞源 1/pɹuːn/
- 1
informalTo become wrinkled like a dried plum, as the fingers and toes do when kept submerged in water.
- I hardly left that spot in my pool that month even when my fingers pruned and chlorine dried out my skin.
pruneverb詞源 2/pɹuːn/
- 1
agriculturebusinesshorticultureTo remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.
- A good grape grower will prune the vines once a year.
- But poore old man, thou prun'ſt a rotten tree, / That cannot ſo much as a bloſſome yeelde
- 2
To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material).
- to prune a budget, or an essay
- taking into consideration how they [laws] are to be pruned and reformed
- 3
To remove (something unnecessary) for the sake of cutting down or shortening that which it was previously part of.
- When internal dissension and a decline in popularity set in, Johnny was pruned from the Crests.
- 4
To remove participation status from or contributed material attributed to users usually deemed inactive or undesirable from an interactive computer service or website for the sake of housekeeping.
- 5
computercomputingengineeringTo remove unnecessary branches from a tree data structure.
- 6
obsoletefalconryhobbieshuntingTo trim the feathers with the beak.
- 7
obsoleteTo preen; to prepare; to dress.
- She gins her feathers fowle disfigured Prowdly to prune, and sett on every side.
- For 'tis observed of every scribbling man, / He grows a fop as fast as e'er he can; / Prunes up, and asks his oracle, the glass, / If pink or purple best become his face.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。