In the 18th century, the Swedish government made coffee and its paraphernalia (including cups and dishes) illegal for its supposed ties to rebellious sentiment.
PARE
pare, pare down
(verb) decrease gradually or bit by bit
pare, trim
(verb) remove the edges from and cut down to the desired size; “pare one’s fingernails”; “trim the photograph”; “trim lumber”
skin, peel, pare
(verb) strip the skin off; “pare apples”
whittle, pare
(verb) cut small bits or pare shavings from; “whittle a piece of wood”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Verb
pare (third-person singular simple present pares, present participle paring, simple past and past participle pared)
(transitive) to remove the outer covering or skin of something with a cutting device, typically a knife
(transitive, often, with down or back) to reduce, diminish or trim gradually something as if by cutting off
to trim the hoof of a horse
Synonyms
• to peel
• to skin
Anagrams
• Earp, Pera, Rape, aper, pear, prae-, præ-, rape, reap
Source: Wiktionary
Pare, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pared; p. pr. & vb. n. Paring.] Etym: [F. parer to pare, as a horse's hoofs, to dress or curry, as, leather, to clear, as anchors or cables, to parry, ward off, fr. L. parare to prepare. Cf. Empire, Parade, Pardon, Parry, Prepare.]
1. To cut off, or shave off, the superficial substance or extremities of; as, to pare an apple; to pare a horse's hoof.
2. To remove; to separate; to cut or shave, as the skin, ring, or outside part, from anything; -- followed by off or away; as; to pare off the ring of fruit; to pare away redundancies.
3. Fig.: To diminish the bulk of; to reduce; to lessen. The king began to pare a little the privilege of clergy. Bacon.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
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