cull
Americanverb (used with object)
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to select and remove from a group, especially to discard or destroy as inferior.
When I cull the smaller curved saplings, I'm careful to protect and nurture the straighter and larger trees.
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to discard unwanted parts or remove choice parts from (a group).
Ranchers must decide whether to buy expensive feed or cull their herds to weather the drought.
- Synonyms:
- single out, cherry-pick
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Quotations are culled from a variety of literature, diaries and letters, local histories, journals, and newspapers.
noun
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the act of culling.
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something culled, especially something picked out and put aside as inferior.
verb
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to choose or gather the best or required examples
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to take out (an animal, esp an inferior one) from a herd
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to reduce the size of (a herd or flock) by killing a proportion of its members
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to gather (flowers, fruit, etc)
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to cease to employ; get rid of
noun
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the act or product of culling
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an inferior animal taken from a herd or group
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has culledperfect 3rd person singular
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have culledperfect
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are cullingprogressive
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has been cullingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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have been cullingperfect progressive
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is cullingprogressive 3rd person singular
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cullssingular 3rd person
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cullingparticiple
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am cullingprogressive 1st person singular
Past
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had culledperfect
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was cullingprogressive singular
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had been cullingperfect progressive
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were cullingprogressive plural
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culledsimple
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culledparticiple
Future
Etymology
Origin of cull
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English coilen, cuilen, cullen, from Anglo-French, Old French coillir, cuillir, from Latin colligere “to gather”; see collect 1
Explanation
To cull means to select or gather. If you decide to make a literary anthology, you must cull the best possible stories and then arrange them in a pleasing manner. When you use cull as a verb, the things you gather can be the good or bad ones from a group. In your garden, you can cull the good vegetables for dinner, or the rotten ones for the compost pile. In fact, often no judgment of quality is made, as when you cull information from the Internet for your next research project. The sorting through will come later. However, if you use the word as a noun, a cull is a selection of things you intend to reject, often in reference to a group of animals. An outbreak of a disease such as foot-and-mouth disease can cause authorities to order a cull of farm pigs.
Vocabulary lists containing cull
Unbroken
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The Westing Game
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"'Blaxicans' and Other Reinvented Americans," Vocabulary from the argument
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Josh Cull, 28, told BBC Breakfast he went through "a year of hell" in 2021 after being treated for a brain tumour which affected his eyesight and ability to walk.
From BBC • Jun. 6, 2025
“When they argue equivalence, to the extent they argue equivalence, we are put on the back foot,” Cull said.
From Salon • Dec. 10, 2024
“We don’t know what’s going to happen but I would certainly say that the stage is being set for a fight and the journalists will be very aware of the stakes,” Cull said.
From Salon • Dec. 10, 2024
Stephen Cull said: “Firstly the SAI report took far too long to carry out and wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t chase it and just left us with more questions.”
From BBC • Oct. 6, 2024
Her raiment,—nay; go, reader, if you please, To some sage Treatise on Antiquities, Whence writers of historical romances Cull old embroideries for their new-spun fancies; I care not for the trivial, nor the fleeting.
From Gawayne and the Green Knight A Fairy Tale by Lewis, Charlton Miner
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
