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pruning shears

pruning shears

1 3.2
A strong pair of hand scissors for cutting small branches and stems
  • noun
  • /ˈpruːnɪŋ ʃɪrz/
translation icon : tijeras de podar
  • Before planting new flowers, make sure to clean your pruning shears for best results.
  • a pair of pruning shears
  • using pruning shears

There's fruit on it right now, but I'm still holding some pruning shears and I'm going to cut it.

Examples

  • I need pruning shears.

  • Anyone seen my pruning shears?

  • That's why I wear these funny clothes and carry these pruning shears as part of my job.

  • See the way the handle on those pruning shears matches her gardening clogs?

  • There's fruit on it right now, but I'm still holding some pruning shears and I'm going to cut it.

  • We worked side by side while my grandmother scurried about her flower garden, singing Italian songs and keeping time with her pruning shears.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • Shelby decided to give it that opportunity, so he took his pruning shears inside the house, leaving the front gate open for the dog to exit through.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • The tub of the day rests snugly therein, along with a pair of gloves and pruning shears.

    Blog text (27)
  • I used my pruning shears to trim the overgrown branches in the garden.

  • Using pruning shears, she carefully shaped the rose bushes into perfect form.

Synonyms

shears
vspruning shears
1 3.0

Large strong scissors for cutting thick things like hedges or cloth

is smaller and used for cutting small woody branches and stems

How Long

pruner
1 4.2
pruning shears
1 3.2

Surface Forms

pruning shears singular

Morphology

prune + shears

The noun phrase is compositionally built from 'prune' (to trim plants) + 'shears' (large scissors), so its meaning — scissors used for pruning — is directly derivable from the constituents. This is a common, cross-linguistic instrument noun formation and would be readily understood by a B1 learner who knows the two words.

Etymology

Pruning shears comes from gardening: they are strong, hand-held scissors called shears used for pruning, which means 'cutting back' dead or old parts of a plant. So the name simply describes the hand tool used to cut small branches and stems.