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Synonyms

weed out

British  

verb

  1. (tr, adverb) to separate out, remove, or eliminate (anything unwanted)

    to weed out troublesome students

"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

weed out Idioms  
  1. Eliminate as inferior, unsuited, or unwanted, as in She was asked to weed out the unqualified applicants. This expression transfers removing weeds from a garden to removing unwanted elements from other enterprises. [First half of 1500s]


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But they also warned broadly that 2026 could be the year the market begins to weed out many young application-layer AI startups.

From The Wall Street Journal

He said he’d like to give supervisors greater authority to quickly weed out complaints that “are demonstrably false on their face” based on body camera footage and other evidence.”

From Los Angeles Times

Informed’s agentic-AI software has been used by large lenders such as JPMorgan Chase’s Chase Auto group, GM Financial, Ally Financial and Capital One to vet borrowers and weed out fraud.

From The Wall Street Journal

Parkanyi vets every submission, weeding out couples who appear rapacious for money, or those who demand a specific type of foreigner.

From The Wall Street Journal

She suggested that apps need to collect more data about their users' identities in order to weed out "bad actors", but stressed that any changes need to consider privacy concerns,.

From BBC