The word 'pruning' is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when referring to the practice of cutting back unwanted parts of plants or trees in order to encourage growth. For example, "I finished pruning the hedge in my garden this afternoon."
See the way the handle on those pruning shears matches her gardening clogs?
We still considered ourselves to be the kind of people whose children would play in the garden, not in the soft-play centre; the kind of people who would spend weekends pruning the wisteria and serving roasts on an ample kitchen table.
Out of the kitchen window is the garden in which Lucinda, whom he describes in the book as "a lone Eve", would lose herself to planning, planting and pruning.
At the same time, supermarkets are pruning the assortment of goods on shelves and consumers are shifting from name brands to supermarkets' own-label nosh.Factories producing packaged food are operating well below capacity, notes Thilo Wrede of Jefferies, a stockbroker.
The French bank agreed to buy the prime-brokerage unit of Bank of America, which is pruning its investment-banking activities.
Mr Medina could achieve many of his goals by pruning the public sector, which is stuffed with party hacks, and redirecting spending to less wasteful ends.
Nissho Iwai is also pruning its operations.Itochu's restructuring efforts have been the most successful so far, largely because it started early.
So lenders have little choice but to bring down their wholesale-borrowing needs.In practice, that often means pruning back activities abroad.
Some likewise fear that GE will not be fast or radical enough in pruning its other businesses to focus on those it sees as having most growth potential in energy, water, transport and health care.
