Meanings
verbpare down (third-person singular simple present pares down, present participle paring down, simple past and past participle pared down)
present singular third person pares down · participle present paring down · participle past pared down · past pared down
- idiomatictransitiveTo reduce by paring or a similar gradual process.
As companies keep paring down their delivery times – from two days to a day to two hours to an hour – longer stretches of the last mile will have to run through urban territory.
2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian
Synonyms & antonyms
Also see
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Czech osekat, ořezat
- osekatto reduce by paring
- ořezatto reduce by paring
- zredukovatto reduce by paring
- snížitto reduce by paring
German beschneiden
- beschneidento reduce by paring
Māori runa
- runato reduce by paring
Polish zmniejszać, zmniejszyć
- zmniejszaćto reduce by paring
- zmniejszyćto reduce by paring
- redukowaćto reduce by paring
- zredukowaćto reduce by paring
Russian обстру́гивать
- обстру́гивать (obstrúgivatʹ)to reduce by paring
Swedish skära ner
- skära nerto reduce by paring
Cite this entry
APA
pare down. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pare%20down
MLA
“pare down.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pare%20down. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pare down,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pare%20down.
Source: pare down on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.