Cull vs Winnow - What's the difference?
cull | winnow |
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 ' eponymous album
To gather, collect.
* Tennyson
* 1977 , , Penguin Classics, p. 202:
To select animals from a group and then kill them in order to reduce the numbers of the group in a controlled manner.
(nonstandard, euphemistic) To kill (animals etc).
To lay off in order to reduce the size of, get rid of.
A selection.
An organised killing of selected animals.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-12-21
, author=Isobel Montgomery
, title=A year that showed the best and worst of Britain
, volume=188, issue=2, page=31
, date=2012-12-18
, magazine=
A piece unfit for inclusion within a larger group; an inferior specimen.
(slang, dialectal) A fool, gullible person; a dupe.
* 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, p. 307:
(agriculture) To subject (granular material, especially food grain) to a current of air separating heavier and lighter components, as grain from chaff.
*
(figuratively) To separate, sift, analyze, or test in this manner.
(literary) To blow upon or toss about by blowing; to set in motion as with a fan or wings.
* 1872 Elliott Coues, Key to North American Birds
(intransitive, literary, dated) To move about with a flapping motion, as of wings; to flutter.
That which winnows or which is used in winnowing; a contrivance for fanning or winnowing grain.
As verbs the difference between cull and winnow
is that cull is to pick or take someone or something (from a larger group) while winnow is to subject (granular material, especially food grain) to a current of air separating heavier and lighter components, as grain from chaff.As nouns the difference between cull and winnow
is that cull is a selection while winnow is that which winnows or which is used in winnowing; a contrivance for fanning or winnowing grain.cull
English
(Culling)Etymology 1
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)- 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.
Noun
(en noun)citation, passage=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.}}
Etymology 2
Perhaps an abbreviation of (cully).Noun
(en noun)- 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.
Synonyms
* See also ----winnow
English
Verb
(en verb)- They winnowed the field to twelve.
- They winnowed the winners from the losers.
- They winnowed the losers from the winners.
- Gulls average much larger than terns, with stouter build; the feet are larger and more ambulatorial, the wings are shorter and not so thin; the birds winnow the air in a steady course unlike the buoyant dashing flight of their relatives.