prune

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The partially dried fruit of any of several varieties of the common plum, Prunus domestica.
• noun Any kind of plum that can be dried without spoiling.
• noun Slang An ill-tempered, stupid, or incompetent person.
• intransitive verb To make a facial expression exhibiting ill temper or disgust.
• intransitive verb To cut off or remove dead or living parts or branches of (a plant, for example) to improve shape or growth.
• intransitive verb To remove or cut out as superfluous.
• intransitive verb To reduce.
• intransitive verb To remove what is superfluous or undesirable.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A plum; in recent usage (especially in the western United States), a plum-suitable to be dried as a prune.
• noun The dried fruit of one of several varieties of the common plum-tree.
• To lop superfluous twigs or branches from (a vine, bush, or tree); trim with a knife.
• To lop off as superfluous or injurious; remove by cutting.
• To clear from anything superfluous: remove what is superfluous or objectionable from.
• To dress or trim, as birds their feathers; preen: also used figuratively.
• To lop off superfluous twigs or branches, as from a vine, bush, or tree.
• To arrange or dress the feathers with the bill: said of birds, and also used figuratively.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To lop or cut off the superfluous parts, branches, or shoots of; to clear of useless material; to shape or smooth by trimming; to trim: as, to prune trees; to prune an essay.
• transitive verb To cut off or cut out, as useless parts.
• transitive verb To preen; to prepare; to dress.
• intransitive verb To dress; to prink; -used humorously or in contempt.
• noun A plum; esp., a dried plum, used in cookery
• noun (Bot.) a large dark purple plum, of oval shape, often one-sided. It is much used for preserving, either dried or in sirup.
• noun (Bot.) The West Indian tree, Prunus occidentalis.
• noun (Bot.) the edible fruit of a sapindaceous tree (Pappea Capensis).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb transitive To remove excess material from a tree or shrub; to trim, especially to make more healthy or productive.
• verb transitive, figuratively To cut down or shorten (by the removal of unnecessary material); as, to prune a budget.
• noun obsolete A plum.
• noun The dried, wrinkled fruit of certain species of plum.
• noun slang An old woman, especially a wrinkly one.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun dried plum
• verb weed out unwanted or unnecessary things
• verb cultivate, tend, and cut back the growth of