cull

[ kuhl ]

/ kʌl /

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See synonyms for: cull / culled / culling on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object)

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.

to collect; gather; pluck: Quotations are culled from a variety of literature, diaries and letters, local histories, journals, and newspapers.

noun

the act of culling.

something culled, especially something picked out and put aside as inferior.

OTHER WORDS FOR cull

2 cherry-pick, single out.

3 garner; amass.

See synonyms for cull on Thesaurus.com

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Origin of cull

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English coilen, cuilen, cullen, from Anglo-French, Old French cuillir, from Latin colligere “to gather”; see collect¹

OTHER WORDS FROM cull

cull·er, nounout·cull, verb (used with object)o·ver·cull, verb (used with object)

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH cull

call, caul, cull

Words nearby cull

Culiacán, culicid, culinarian, culinary, Culion, cull, culled, Cullen, cullender, culler, cullet

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use cull in a sentence

The social media giant’s global cull of Australian news hit not only media companies, but also a wide range of governmental organizations, including some state and local health departments and the Bureau of Meteorology.
How Australia May Have Just Saved Journalism From Big Tech|Robert Whitehead|February 22, 2021|Time
In March 2020 it was one of the first countries in Europe to institute a lockdown to try to contain the virus, and in November it was quick to order a cull of farmed minks when a new variant spotted in the animals was linked to 12 cases in humans.
Why Denmark’s “corona passport” is more of a promise than a plan|Bobbie Johnson|February 10, 2021|MIT Technology Review
A cull hunt is often ruled out of the question due to human population densities, so game managers have employed many different tactics with varying degrees of success.
Four wild animals that are thriving in cities|By Ryan Chelius/Outdoor Life|February 9, 2021|Popular-Science
Denmark will dig up millions of dead mink after a hasty cull and burial intended to stamp out a coronavirus mutation ended with the rotting carcasses triggering a new contamination risk.
Denmark to exhume bodies of COVID-19 infected mink over contamination risk|kdunn6|December 21, 2020|Fortune

Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, the head of the biggest opposition party, the Liberals, told broadcaster TV2 he won’t back the government’s proposal for a mass cull here and now.
Denmark’s prime minister says its mink population will be culled—but she’s facing political resistance|kdunn6|November 9, 2020|Fortune
Could I, along with a few other Tumblr users, help cull through the questions and select some?
The Exciting-but-Depressing Obama-Tumblr Student-Loan Summit|Kelly Williams Brown|June 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In 2012 she again raised eyebrows when she suggested that badgers shot in any cull should be eaten.
The Week in Death: Clarissa Dickson Wright, One of ‘Two Fat Ladies’|The Telegraph|March 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In this case, a cull of the Taliban and ISAF tweets yields a unique view into the current state of Afghan affairs.
Taliban And NATO War on Twitter|Sam Schneider|November 20, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Steele visited Sparks in Harlem to cull from his collection of high-end labels and vintage pieces.
Queer Style A History of Fashion at FIT in New York|Peter Davis|September 14, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Prenatal testing leads to more abortions and prompts us to “cull the ranks of the disabled”?
Rick Santorum Faces a Grilling at CNN Debate|Howard Kurtz|February 22, 2012|DAILY BEAST
They are goin' to skid the butt log again, and they swear that if you cull it again, they will kill you.
Blazed Trail Stories|Stewart Edward White
He would doubtless have pressed bologna now on Tod McNeil had that social cull stayed by.
The Wrong Twin|Harry Leon Wilson
There we cull the flowers of the field and the forest glade, weaving them into garlands, building them into nosegays.
Fibble, D. D.|Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb
The items we cull relate to a trade once very general in the United States, but happily now a thing of the past.
Literary Byways|William Andrews
Let no man say that these were simply oranges, for these a man may cull in many a Greek garden to-day.
The Walls of Constantinople|Bernard Granville Baker

British Dictionary definitions for cull

cull

/ (kʌl) /

verb (tr)

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

Word Origin for cull

C15: from Old French coillir to pick, from Latin colligere; see collect 1

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

cull

OTHER WORDS FOR cull

Origin of cull

OTHER WORDS FROM cull

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH cull

Words nearby cull

Words related to cull

How to use cull in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for cull

Word Origin for cull