cull

CEFRC1

/kʌl/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To remove weaker or unwanted members from a group.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To gather, collect.

Examples

  • I breed betta fish and cull my unwanted stock by feeding them to my oscar.

  • There is no reason to cull pigs right now.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To select animals from a group and then kill them in order to reduce the numbers of the group in a controlled manner.

  2. To pick or take someone or something (from a larger group).

  3. To lay off in order to reduce the size of, get rid of.

More examples

In context

  • 1984, cover star: JOE DALLESANDRO culled from Andy Warhol's FLESH — anonymous; sleeve notes from The Smiths' eponymous album

  • back-face culling

  • Chaucer's prose Tale of Melibee […] is a dialectal homily of moral debate, exhibiting a learned store of ethical precept culled from many ancient authorities.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Farmers must regularly blank the weak animals from the herd.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Middle English cullen, cuilen, coilen, from Old French cuillir (“collect, gather, select”), from Latin colligō (“gather together”). Doublet of coil.