The action of cutting thin slices from cheese; also used figuratively to mean stingy or miserly behavior, or unnecessary penny-pinching.
Gerund of 'cheesepare'. The figurative sense (meaning stingy) emerged because paring cheese means taking only the smallest possible amount, metaphorically extending to mean grudging or miserly behavior.
This word perfectly shows how everyday actions become metaphors—'cheeseparing' (the literal practice of minimal cutting) became a metaphor for excessive frugality, showing how practical language shapes how we think about human behavior.
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