culling

[kuhl-ing]

noun

1. the act or process of selecting and removing desirable or undesirable individuals from a group.

   Reducing farm exposure to the bacteria will require more rigorous testing and culling of infected animals.

2. the process of gathering or collecting.

   To realize progress through the transfer of ideas, an informed culling of content and the extension of a shared knowledge base are essential.

3. the group of things resulting from either of these processes.

   The collection War in Context provides a crucial culling of stories that I would surely have missed had I not read it.

Word History and Origins

Origin of culling¹

cull ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

"Thorough culling" to reduce the number of bears is the only effective way to reduce the risk for local people, researcher Ohnishi said.

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“Doing this rapid culling of your workforce, it’s very risky,” he said.

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Avian flu has spread globally in recent years, leading to mass culling of poultry, some human deaths, and rising egg prices.

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“Isabelle,” he said, “this is just its subtle way of culling the human population.”

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Now, timber interests are aligning with environmentalists in favor of culling the owls.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• choice 
• collection 
• draft 
• election 
• excerpt 
• option 
• pick