pare

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To remove the outer covering or skin of with a knife or similar instrument: pare apples.
2. v. To remove by or as if by cutting, clipping, or shaving: pared off the excess dough.
3. v. To reduce as if by cutting off outer parts; trim: pare expenses from the monthly budget.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To trim by cutting or shaving off thin slices or flakes from the surface or the extremities: as, to pare an apple; to pare a horse's hoof, or one's nails; to pare old or worn-out grass-land.
2. To reduce by cutting away superficial parts; diminish by little and little; cut down.
3. To remove by or as by cutting, clipping, or shaving: with off or away: as, to pare off the rind of fruit; to pare away redundancies.
4. Synonyms Pare, Peel, Shave off. To pare is to remove the surface only with a knife or similar instrument; to peel is to pull off the skin or rind. “That is peeled which is deprived of a natural layer or integument spread over it.” (C. J. Smith, Synonyms Discriminated, p. 603.) The figurative uses of these two words are limited. Shave or shave off still seems figurative when not implying the use of a razor, and is controlled in its meaning by that original sense; hence it is always limited to dressing off the surface.
5. n. An obsolete form of. pair.
6. n. Among the Maoris of New Zealand, the carved ornament or ornamentation about a door.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive to remove the outer covering or skin of something with a cutting device, typically a knife
2. v. transitive to reduce, diminish or trim gradually something as if by cutting off
3. v. to trim the hoof of a horse

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To cut off, or shave off, the superficial substance or extremities of
2. v. To remove; to separate; to cut or shave, as the skin, rind, or outside part, from anything; -- followed by off or away.
3. v. Fig.: To diminish the bulk of; to reduce; to lessen.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. decrease gradually or bit by bit
2. v. cut small bits or pare shavings from
3. v. strip the skin off
4. v. remove the edges from and cut down to the desired size