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

Amid a worrying Covid variant outbreak among minks -- when Denmark was the largest exporter of their furs -- she ordered the culling of some 17 million minks, an order which was later ruled illegal.

From Barron's • Mar. 25, 2026

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

Then they tested what happens when different interventions - culling birds, quarantining close contacts and targeted vaccination - kicked in.

From BBC • Dec. 17, 2025

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

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 8, 2025

It was a lousy job, but twice a day, someone at the farm had to do the culling.

From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings

Related Words

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