cull
Americanverb (used with object)
-
culls,
present (3rd person singular)
-
culled,
past participle, past
-
culling
present participle
-
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.
-
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
-
Quotations are culled from a variety of literature, diaries and letters, local histories, journals, and newspapers.
noun
-
culls
plural
-
the act of culling.
-
something culled, especially something picked out and put aside as inferior.
verb
-
to choose or gather the best or required examples
-
to take out (an animal, esp an inferior one) from a herd
-
to reduce the size of (a herd or flock) by killing a proportion of its members
-
to gather (flowers, fruit, etc)
-
to cease to employ; get rid of
noun
-
the act or product of culling
-
an inferior animal taken from a herd or group
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
cullsimple
-
cullssimple
-
have culledperfect
-
has culledperfect
-
am cullingprogressive
-
are cullingprogressive
-
is cullingprogressive
-
have been cullingperfect progressive
-
has been cullingperfect progressive
Past
-
culledsimple
-
had culledperfect
-
was cullingprogressive
-
were cullingprogressive
-
had been cullingperfect progressive
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The Westing Game
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
"'Blaxicans' and Other Reinvented Americans," Vocabulary from the argument
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
See Examples For:
Muir has also previously insisted that Daera had "no choice" but to cull the cattle.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
A farmers' union has called for the Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir to resign over how a cull of 51 cattle was carried out.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Some politicians had previously raised concerns that members of the public and neighbours had seen the cull taken place and had heard gunfire in the area.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
As avian flu spread like wildfire through the industry, poultry farmers were forced to cull 26 million birds, leading prices to skyrocket.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
There Call, his hands in heavy rubber gloves, would cull, using a culling hammer.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
In order to unlock space for thousands of homes, developers would pay money that could create new wetlands, fund deer culls and restore rivers.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
The model, which does not source without permission, culls mountains of data about the natural world from partners including the Smithsonian, London’s Natural History Museum and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2026
Meanwhile, there are too few indications that China’s economic slowdown is leading to the sort of business upheaval that culls lagging businesses in a recession.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
But in 2016 several Balkan nations curtailed major epidemics of the same disease through swift action, mass vaccination and culls in about three months.
From Barron's ● Dec. 17, 2025
I pick and sort by hand in two classes only—marketable and culls.
From The Apple by Various
Late last year, he released “Holo Boy,” a collection of re-recorded songs culled from the deep archive—we’re talking dozens of releases—he built by issuing material primarily on the platform Bandcamp.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
AI-driven answers culled from sifting information in large language models might lack important context or fail to interpret it correctly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Politicians from the Clogher Valley area had previously spoken out about accounts from the public and neighbours who said they were distressed after witnessing some of the cattle being culled.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Or they might recognize the Feng Shui Yundo culled from the nearby Korean Cultural Center.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
Here are examples of how I culled information relating to Bigger from my reading: There is in me a memory of reading an interesting pamphlet telling of the friendship of Gorky and Lenin in exile.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
That is because GM’s premium brand went nearly all-in on EVs while culling a trio of gas-powered models.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
The social media culling also snared vulnerable employees and promoters who host nights in these clubs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
The culling of farm animals in Northern Ireland is strictly regulated by Daera under specific laws.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
“I always think, like the song, about cleaning it up or at least culling it so I could get all the records off the floor and onto the shelves.”
From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026
“Well,” I said, “I guess you won’t be culling for Daddy this winter.”
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
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.
