culling

American  

[kuhl-ing] / ˈkʌl ɪŋ /

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.

---

Etymology

Origin of culling

cull ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

And in the Darwin-esque culling of leaders that followed, the ones that emerged victorious had little love for the U.S.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 3, 2026

To solve it, she has employed a full-time worker whose main job is culling deer.

From BBC • Dec. 25, 2025

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

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 8, 2025

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

From Barron's • Nov. 8, 2025

My father took a few days off to shoot duck, and then put the culling board back on the Portia Sue and headed out for oysters.

From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson

Related Words

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