Dictionary.com
definitions

cull

[kuhl]
||
SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR cull ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object)

to choose; select; pick.
to gather the choice things or parts from.
to collect; gather; pluck.

noun

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

Origin of cull

1300–50; Middle English coilen, cuilen, cullen < Anglo-French, Old French cuillir < Latin colligere to gather; see collect1
Related formscull·er, nounout·cull, verb (used with object)o·ver·cull, verb (used with object)un·culled, adjective
Can be confusedcall caul cull

Synonyms for cull

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR cull ON THESAURUS.COM
2. glean, extract. 3. garner, winnow.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for culled

glean, winnow, pluck, sift, extract, select, amass, collect, discriminate, prefer, choose, mark, take, elect, thin, accumulate, garner

Examples from the Web for culled

Contemporary Examples of culled

Historical Examples of culled

  • Some little ray of consolation I culled, perhaps, from my thoughts of Roxalanne.

  • Many are the lots of beasts I have bought and culled, and I had to pay for it.

  • He assured the women that the samples were not culled: "Jes' took as they come."

  • You are Christians of the best edition, all picked and culled.

    Familiar Quotations

    John Bartlett

  • Every morning she found beside her plate a bouquet which he had culled.

    Which?

    Ernest Daudet

British Dictionary definitions for culled

cull

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
Word Origin and History for culled

cull

n.

"dupe, saphead," rogues' slang from late 16c., perhaps a shortening of cullion "base fellow," originally "testicle" (from French couillon, from Old French coillon "testicle; worthless fellow, dolt," from Latin coleus, literally "strainer bag;" see cojones), though another theory traces it to Romany (Gypsy) chulai "man." Also sometimes cully, though some authorities assert cully was the canting term for "dupe" and cull was generic "man, fellow," without implication of gullibility. Cf. also gullible.

cull

v.

c.1200, originally "put through a strainer," from Old French coillir (12c., Modern French cueillir) "collect, gather, pluck, select," from Latin colligere "gather together, collect," originally "choose, select" (see collect). Related: Culled; culling. As a noun, from 1610s.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper