paring, vbl. n.
(ˈpɛərɪŋ)
[f. pare v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of pare v.1, or the result of this.
† 1. The action of preparing, preparation. Obs.
| 1392 Earl Derby's Exp. (Camden) 156/6 Et pro bulting et paring dicti frumenti. 1444 Rolls of Parlt. V. 114/1 The saide Wyne had his true makyng, and trewe boillyng and paryng. |
2. The action of pruning, or cutting off the edge or surface, or anything superficial.
lit. and
fig.| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxvii. (Bedl. MS.) lf. 220/1 Euerich ȝere þe spraie [of a vyne] nedeþ kuttinge and paringe. 1607 Middleton Michaelm. Term ii. iii, For all his cleansing, pruning, and paring, he's not worthy a broker's daughter. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxi. 528 The hoofs of horses have become less solid in consequence of continual paring. 1881 E. J. Worboise Sissie viii, That one is never the better for mere scraping, and paring, and saving. |
3. concr. A thin portion pared off the surface of anything, usually as refuse or superfluous matter; a shaving.
| 1382 Wyclif 1 Cor. iv. 13 We ben maad, the paringis [gloss or outcastinge] of alle thingis til ȝit. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. vii. 61 The rynde or the paryng of this appel. 1602 Narcissus (1893) App. i. 25 What is left for mee but the paringes, when I have given others the peares? 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 140 Never was more truly verified that Proverb, Half the King's Cheese goes away in Parings. 1793 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) II. 278 To take her islands is to possess but the paring of her nails. 1856 Miss Mulock J. Halifax i, Sailing thereon a fleet of potato parings. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
paring-bee,
N. Amer. (
bee1 4),
paring-chisel,
paring frolic,
paring gouge,
paring-iron,
paring-knife,
paring-mattock,
paring-plough,
paring-shovel,
paring-spade, etc.;
paring-place, ? the castor (of a horse).
| 1830 J. Pickering Emigration 72 A paring ‘bee’, or ‘be’, [is] an assemblage of neighbours invited to one house, to prepare apples for drying. 1845 Lowell (Mass.) Offering V. 269 When we were about to have a paring bee we sent our invitations a day or two previous. 1850 Knickerbocker XXXV. 24 Give me the real paring-bee reels and jigs before all your waltzes and Spanish dances. 1857 Quinland I. 191 Went this evening..with the young people to a paring-bee at Squire Carter's. 1888 J. Q. Bittinger Hist. Haverhill (N.H.) 359 Quite an incident was the paring⁓bee in bringing young folks together. The..young men mounted the paring machines and peeled the apples, whilst the..young ladies quartered and cored them. 1933 E. C. Guillet Early Life Upper Canada 195 A paring bee produced large numbers of strings of dried apples, and these were suspended from the ceiling of kitchen or attic. |
| 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 76 The Paring-Chissel..must have a very fine and smooth edge. 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring & Summer 365/2 Barton's paring chisels. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 617/1 Paring chisel (Carp., Join.), a long chisel with a thinner blade than a firmer tool, used for finishing off work by hand. 1964 W. L. Goodman Hist. Woodworking Tools 33 Plate 1 of the ‘Charpente’ article shows a workman using the paring-chisel end of this tool. 1968 J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts 287 Each blade produced may be compared very roughly to a carpenter's paring-chisel in having a bevel along its two sides. 1974 P. W. Blandford Country Craft Tools v. 76 A longer and thinner chisel for hand pressure only was called a ‘paring’ or ‘heading’ chisel. |
| 1931 V. P. Seary Romance Marit. Provinces 177 Another sort of frolic was the ‘paring frolic’, when young men and girls gathered to pare and slice apples, that they might be dried out and kept throughout the winter. |
| 1909 Webster, Paring gouge. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 617/2 Paring gouge (Carp. etc.), a gouge having the bevel ground upon the inside or concave face of the cutting edge. 1966 A. W. Lewis Gloss. Woodworking Terms 39 A paring gouge is a long thin scribing gouge. |
| 1530 Palsgr. 652/2, I pare a saffrone grounde, or aley with a paryng yron. |
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Tranchete, a shooemakers paring knife. 1908 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 768/1 Kitchen or paring knives... Length of blade, 3 inches. 1925 Scribner's Mag. Oct. 430/1 She was rubbing the paring-knife across her fingers to free them from dirt and water. 1968 J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts 139 The box contains hammer, pritchel, buffer, paring-knife, pincers and, of course, a supply of nails. |
| 1693 Lond. Gaz. No. 2935/4 A black [Gelding]..with a swelling on the Paring place of the far hind Leg. |
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 12 The Paring-Plough is a necessary instrument..in bringing into cultivation heath, moor, and other waste lands. |
| 1552 Huloet, Paring shouell, or instrument to pare flores, valgium. |
| 1888 Sheffield Gloss., Paring-spade, an instrument used for clearing stubble from land after harvest. |