cull
English · Thesaurus
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cull¹
- /kʌl/ UK, US
- /kʊl/ Northern England
Rhymes with -ʌl
Where it comes from
From Middle English cullen, cuilen, coilen, from Old French cuillir (“collect, gather, select”), from Latin colligō (“gather together”). Doublet of coil.
verb culls · culling · culled
-
To pick or take someone or something (from a larger group).
where Cyrus lay in ambuſh with ſix hundred men, which he had culled out for that purpoſe
Similar: cherry-pick
- To gather, collect. [T]he yellowbanded bees, / Through half-open lattices / Coming in the scented breeze, / Fed thee, a child, lying alone, / With whitest honey in fairy gardens culled— […]
- To select (animals, plants, etc) from a group and then kill (them) in order to reduce the numbers of the group in a controlled manner. […] and tropical ash (81 percent of trees culled). Excessive lean, the second major culling factor, accounted for […] 13 percent of the tropical ash cull trees, and […]
- To kill (an animal, person, etc) for any reason. Berzin was then replaced by Stiepan Garanin, who was culled for being a 'Japanese spy' (although the uneducated Garanin pleaded to his torturers that he had never even heard of Japan); Garanin was then replaced by Andrei Vyshnyevtsky, who was culled for being insufficiently murderous; Vyshnyevtsky w
- To lay off in order to reduce the numbers of; get rid of. The company culled more employees this month.
- To selectively not render or process certain objects, such as polygons. back-face culling
noun culls
- A selection.
- An organized killing of selected animals. It seemed that the sun shone and all was right in our Blakean islands until the government began to set in motion its promised cull of badgers in an effort to control bovine TB. Salvation for brock came in the form of an online petition started by Queen guitarist Brian May, the rising costs of the p
- An individual animal selected to be killed, or item of produce to be discarded.
- A lobster having only one claw.
- A piece unfit for inclusion within a larger group; an inferior specimen.
cull²
- /kʌl/ UK, US
- /kʊl/ Northern England
Rhymes with -ʌl
Where it comes from
Perhaps an abbreviation of cully.
noun culls
- A fool, gullible person; a dupe. Follow but my counsel, and I will show you a way to empty the pocket of a queer cull without any danger of the nubbing cheat.
- A man or boy. But you don't want no dealings with that cull. A darker villain I never did see.
Cull³
proper noun Culls
- A surname.
Translations
Every language
verb to pick or take someone or something
| Español | entresacar, machetear, refugar, escardar |
|---|---|
| Português | catar |
| Français | cueillir |
| Deutsch | pflücken |
| Italiano | cogliere |
| Русский | отбира́ть otbirátʹ, отобра́ть otobrátʹ, вычленя́ть vyčlenjátʹ, вы́членить výčlenitʹ |
verb to select animals from a group and then kill them
| Español | seleccionar y luego matar |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 撲殺 /扑杀 pūshā, 淘汰 táotài |
| Deutsch | keulen |
| Italiano | abbattere |
| Русский | бракова́ть brakovátʹ, выбрако́вывать vybrakóvyvatʹ, забракова́ть zabrakovátʹ, отстре́ливать otstrélivatʹ, отстрели́ть otstrelítʹ |
noun inferior specimen
| עברית | בְּרָרָה brára |
|---|
Talk about this word "cull." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/cull. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. cull. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/cull "cull." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/cull.Cite this
@misc{cull_2026,
title = {cull},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/cull},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
