CULL

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cull mean? 

• CULL (noun)
  The noun CULL has 1 sense:

1. the person or thing that is rejected or set aside as inferior in quality

  Familiarity information: CULL used as a noun is very rare.

• CULL (verb)
  The verb CULL has 2 senses:

1. remove something that has been rejected

2. look for and gather

  Familiarity information: CULL used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CULL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The person or thing that is rejected or set aside as inferior in quality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

cull; reject

Hypernyms ("cull" is a kind of...):

deciding; decision making (the cognitive process of reaching a decision)

Derivation:

cull (remove something that has been rejected)

• CULL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they cull    ... he / she / it culls   
Past simple: culled   
Past participle: culled   
-ing form: culling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remove something that has been rejected

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Context example:

cull the sick members of the herd

Hypernyms (to "cull" is one way to...):

get rid of; remove (dispose of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

cull (the person or thing that is rejected or set aside as inferior in quality)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Look for and gather

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

cull; pick; pluck

Context example:

pick flowers

Hypernyms (to "cull" is one way to...):

collect; garner; gather; pull together (assemble or get together)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cull"):

mushroom (pick or gather mushrooms)

berry (pick or gather berries)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Also:

cull out (select desirable parts from a group or list)

 Context examples 

He is so gentle, yet so wise; his mind is so cultivated, and when he speaks, although his words are culled with the choicest art, yet they flow with rapidity and unparalleled eloquence.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The friendliness of this gentleman, said Mr. Micawber to my aunt, if you will allow me, ma'am, to cull a figure of speech from the vocabulary of our coarser national sports—floors me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He forced himself at last to finish the magazine, and from the steamer library he culled several volumes of poetry.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The scientists culled national VA databases to evaluate the effects of air pollution and kidney disease on nearly 2.5 million people over a period of 8.5 years, beginning in 2004.

(Breathing Dirty Air May Harm Kidneys, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Two of our boats, with men all safe, we took off the Cisco, and, to Wolf Larsen’s huge delight and my own grief, he culled Smoke, with Nilson and Leach, from the San Diego.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

That the other part of the parliament consisted of an assembly called the House of Commons, who were all principal gentlemen, freely picked and culled out by the people themselves, for their great abilities and love of their country, to represent the wisdom of the whole nation.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He drew up lists of effective and fetching mannerisms, till out of many such, culled from many writers, he was able to induce the general principle of mannerism, and, thus equipped, to cast about for new and original ones of his own, and to weigh and measure and appraise them properly.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)