By making small cuts, economises (6)
I believe the answer is:
spares
'economises' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with ownership as well as being verbs in their -s form.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'by making small cuts' is the wordplay.
'by making small' becomes 's' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cuts' becomes 'pares' (paring is a kind of cutting).
's'+'pares'='SPARES'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spares that I've seen before include "Is merciful towards, refrains from hurting" , "Extras in case of necessity" , "Lets off; reserve parts" , "Replacement items, like tyres" , "Extras with spears" .)