pruInose, pruInous

[Lat. pruinosus, from pruina =hoar-frost; Fr. pruineux; Ital. pru inoso.] Ord. Lang. & Bot . ( the latter of the form pruinose): Appearing as if covered with hoar-frost; hoary, frosted (q. v.). prû-in-oŭs, a. [PRUINOSE.] prûne, *proin, *proine, *proyn, v . t . & i . [Prob. from Fr. provigner =to plant or set suckers or slips, to propagate, from O. Fr. provain ; Fr. provin =a vine-sucker set in the ground, from Latin prop a ginem , acc us. of propago a shoot, a sucker; Ital. propaggine.] [PROVINE.] A. Transitive : 1. To cut or lop off, as the superfluous branches or shoots of trees; to cut or lop off the superfluous branches or shoots of; to trim with a knife. "It improves greatly under high culture and pruning ." -Scribner's Magazine , April, 1880, p. 827. 2. To free from anything superfluous or overabundant. "One sees him clipping his apricots and pruning his e ays." Thackeray: English Humorists; Swift. *3. To dre up; to make trim and neat. "A husband that loveth to trim and pamper his body, causeth his wife by that means to study nothing else but the tricking and pruning of herself."- P . Holland : Plutarch's Morals, p. 318. 4. To trim or dre with the bill. "To prune his ruffled wing." Scott: Lady of the Lake, i. 20. *B. In trans.: To dre up; to prink. ( Dryden : Epil . to All for Love .) prûne, s . [Fr., from Lat. prunum =a plum, from Gr. prounon , for proumnon =a plum; prounos , for proumnos a plum-tree; Sp. pruna ; Ital. pruna , prugna .] The dried fruit of Prunus domestic a , especially of the varieties called St. Catherine and Green Gage. They contain a large proportion of sugar, ., so that brandy can be distilled from them. Used as a condiment and as a domestic laxative medicine, but they are apt to gripe.