paring knife
5
3.2
- noun
- /ˈpɛrɪŋ naɪf/
:
cuchillo de pelar
- He holds an apple in one hand and a paring knife in the other.
- a sharp paring knife
- use a paring knife
- a small paring knife
Examples
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A paring knife pares away the bad bits, and the rest is kept and enjoyed.
Blog text (34) -
My two brothers, my sister, and I sat down on overturned egg crates with paring knives in our hands.
Fiction book (1998) -
I need a sharp paring knife and a bottle of vodka.
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I'm rather happy with the way my paring knife performs now.
Blog text (34) -
- Uh, Becky do you have a paring knife?
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When I saw the picture of David's favorite paring knife, I thought, 'Wow!'
Blog text (34) -
In my opinion, you can do well with an inexpensive paring knife.
Blog text (34) -
I reach for the chef's knife, bread knife, and the paring knife on a daily basis.
Blog text (34) -
Meanwhile, cut broccoli florets from stems and separate them into small pieces using a paring knife.
Blog text (28) -
Using a sharp paring knife, I peeled the apple quickly and easily.
Synonyms
6
1.6
A small hand tool with a sharp blade that takes off thin fruit and vegetable skin
A small sharp knife used to peel fruits and vegetables
How Small
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a small, sharp knife used for peeling or trimming' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'pare' (to trim/peel) with 'knife' (a cutting tool), yielding an instrument for paring. This action→instrument compound follows a regular English composition pattern and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Paring knife is named from the word paring, which means to cut off very thin pieces, and knife. Cooks used this small, sharp tool for 'peeling' and trimming fruit and vegetables, so the name simply means a small knife for 'peeling'.