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cull

Pronunciation: /kʌl/

The English word “cull” has 13 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To pick or take someone or something (from a larger group).
  2. To gather, collect.
  3. 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.
  4. To kill (an animal, person, etc) for any reason.
  5. To lay off in order to reduce the numbers of; get rid of.
  6. To selectively not render or process certain objects, such as polygons.

noun

  1. A selection.
  2. An organized killing of selected animals.
  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.
  6. A fool, gullible person; a dupe.
  7. A man or boy.

Etymology

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

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.