pruning shears

small, sturdy shears used for pruning shrubbery.

Origin of pruning shears

First recorded in 1800–10

There was a robin singing in a bush under the window, and there was some one in the garden with a pair of pruning-shears.

Master Skylark |John Bennett
Its height is fully seventy feet, and its crown is as flat as though cut off with a mammoth pair of pruning-shears.

Pastoral Days |William Hamilton Gibson
"But I was going to—" He made a feeble beginning toward stooping for the pruning-shears.

Ralestone Luck |Andre Norton
I prune with pruning-shears and a chisel to increase the fruit; I think it pays.

The Apple |Various

Pruning-shears, and a pruning-pole, with a chisel at the end, can be procured of those who deal in agricultural utensils.

A Treatise on Domestic Economy |Catherine Esther Beecher