weed out

verb

1. tr, adverb to separate out, remove, or eliminate (anything unwanted)

   to weed out troublesome students

Idioms and Phrases

Eliminate as inferior, unsuited, or unwanted, as in She was asked to weed out the unqualified applicants . This expression transfers removing weeds from a garden to removing unwanted elements from other enterprises. [First half of 1500s]

Example Sentences

In an industry dominated by hits like ‘Exploited Teen,’ raising the minimum age would weed out the rule-obeying responsible.

From The Daily Beast

He uses his detective skills to weed out the glory hounds who are trying to profit from having an in-house ghost.

From The Daily Beast

Vosshall designed her pilot study to weed out this variable.

From The Daily Beast

Employers like to require army experience as a pre-requisite in order to weed out the Palestinian applicants.

From The Daily Beast

She helped create a more cautious industry that works to weed out any underage performers.

From The Daily Beast

Indeed it took nearly a couple of years to weed out the disreputable members of this body.

From Project Gutenberg

He prevents his men from organizing, and employs spies to weed out the radicals and to sow dissensions.

From Project Gutenberg

It takes three weeks, nearly, to find out whos good and to weed out the others, and thats just so much time lost.

From Project Gutenberg

By this continued process the birds steadily weed out the darker-colored specimens.

From Project Gutenberg

David sat for two or three minutes puffing diligently, and then took the weed out of his mouth and looked contemplatively at it.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• cull
• derive
• distill
• elicit
• exact
• extort
• extricate
• glean
• obtain
• pluck
• pry
• pull
• reap
• separate
• siphon
• squeeze
• withdraw
• wrest
• wring