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That which is cast off by bird in pruning her feathers; leavings. Beau. & Fl. Pruning hook, or Pruning knife, cutting instrument used in pruning trees, etc. -- Pruning shears, shears for pruning trees, vines, etc.

lief unto the brethren. Acts xi. 29. Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study. Bacon. The public men of England, with much of a peculiar kind of ability. Macaulay.

An instrument for pruning trees, consisting of two blades, or a blade and a hook, fixed on the end of a long rod.

A cutting instrument, with hook-shaped point, and fitted with a handle; -- used in pruning, etc.; a billhook. When short, called a hand bill, when long, a hedge bill.

A thick, heavy knife with a hooked point, used in pruning hedges, etc. When it has a short handle, it is sometimes called a hand bill; when the handle is long, a hedge bill or scimiter.

Sharp-edged and pointed; shaped like a pruning knife, as the beak of certain birds.

Shaped like a pruning knife; cultrate.

The act of stripping, as trees, of leaves or branches; a kind of pruning. Evelyn.

A pruning hook. [Usually written hand bill.]

To employed in pruning. [Obs.]

training trees or shrubs in the shape of a cone or distaff by tying down the branches and pruning.

A pruning knife with a curved blade. Knight.

or spreads out, beyond the rest, or too far; an exuberant growth. Let thy hand supply the pruning knife, And crop luxuriant stragglers. Dryden.

irect, and form to a wall or espalier; to form to a proper shape, by bending, lopping, or pruning; as, to train young trees. He trained the young branches to the right hand or to the left. Jeffrey.