verb / noun
cull
KUL/kʌl/
To select and take particular items from a larger group.
The orchard worker culls a rotten apple from the crate of sound fruit.
Etymology
The ancestor meant “gather together” or “select,” and culling originally meant picking out the best. Selection later focused on inferior livestock, giving the modern sense of choosing unwanted members for removal.
In context
wolves helped to cull the old the weak and the sick but now with human expansion threatening even here it may no longer be possible
More examples
- Workers cull damaged apples before packing the rest.
- She culled these recipes from old family notebooks.
- The annual cull reduces the size of the deer herd.
Forms
cull · culls · culled · culling