pare

pare something down (to something)

to cut someone down to something or a smaller size. I will have to pare the budget down to the minimum. I hope we can pare down the budget. After much arguing, we pared it down.

pare something off (of) something

and pare something off

to cut something off something.(Of is usually retained before pronouns.) See if you can pare a bit of this extra wood off the edge of the base of this pillar. Pare off some of the wood.

pare down

1. To reduce the size of something by cutting or shaving off its outer layers; trim something: I pared down the tiles so that they would fit snugly together. The pegs were too big for the hole, so I pared them down with a pocketknife.

2. To reduce the size or amount of something by gradually taking away parts of it: We should pare down the supplies we keep in our storage room until we have only what we absolutely need. The article was too long, and it took me a long time to pare it down.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Metodija	-	Macedonian
Daiva	-	Lithuanian
Pascaline	-	French
Ault	[ɔ:lt]
Gavino	gah-VEE-no	Italian
Kayleen	KAY-leen	English (Rare)