cull

UK /kʌl/ US /kʌl/
noun 7verb 5name 1

Definitions

verb

1

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

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

2

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— […]

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.

3

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

4

To kill (animals, etc).

5

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

noun

1

A selection.

2

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 programme and the weather.

3

An individual animal selected to be killed, or item of produce to be discarded.

4

A lobster having only one claw.

5

A piece unfit for inclusion within a larger group; an inferior specimen.

noun

1

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.

2

A man or boy.

But you don't want no dealings with that cull. A darker villain I never did see.

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