Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PARE, v.t. [Fr. parer; Arm. para, to dress, to trim, to parry or ward off, to stop; Sp. and Port. parar, to parry, to stop, to prepare; Port. aparar, to pare, and to parry; L. paro; W. par, a state of readiness, also a pair; para, to continue, to persevere, to last, to endure; Fr. parer des cuirs, to dress or curry leather; parer le pied d'un cheval, to pare a horse's foot or hoof; Pers. پُرِِيدَنْ poridan, to pare or cut off; (qu. Gr. πηρος, lame; πηροω, to mutilate;) Ar. بَرَأَ to be free, to free, liberate or absolve, to dismiss, to remit, to create; Heb. Ch. Syr. and Sam. ברא, to create; Heb. and Ch. id. to cut off. The primary sense is to thrust or drive; hence to drive off, to separate, to stop by setting or repelling, as in parry, or to drive off or out, as in separating or producing. In Portuguese and Welsh, it has the sense of stretching, extending, and the Welsh unites par, equal, a pair, with the root of this word; par, a pair, what is continued to or contiguous. See ברר and ברא, Class Br, No. 6, 7, 8, 10.]

1. To cut off, as the superficial substance or extremities of a thing; to shave off with a sharp instrument; as, to pare an apple or an orange; to pare the nails; to pare a horse's hoof; to pare land in agriculture.
2. To diminish by little and little. The king began to pare a little the privilege of clergy. – Bacon. When pare is followed by the thing diminished, the noun is in the objective case; as, to pare the nails. When the thing separated is the object, pare is followed by off or away; as, to pare off the rind of fruit; to pare away redundances.