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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.

See Examples For:

The county’s legal team fought to keep the deal on track, arguing that enhanced fraud prevention would be enough to weed out false claims.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026

Social media companies bear the sole responsibility for checking that Australia-based users are 16 or older, and must prove they have taken "reasonable steps" to weed out young teenagers.

From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026

“Each side tries to weed out the other. The distinction we were seeing more of was either general trust or general skepticism.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026

It is designed to weed out the insecure and trigger-happy, the reckless hotheads with something to prove.

From Slate ● Apr. 13, 2026

What about the things we could do to weed out harm before it’s done to them?

From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi

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