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Cult vs Cull - What's the difference?

cult | cull |

As nouns the difference between cult and cull

is that cult is a group of people with a religious, philosophical or cultural identity sometimes viewed as a sect, often existing on the margins of society or exploitative towards its members while cull is a selection or cull can be (slang|dialectal) a fool, gullible person; a dupe.

As an adjective cult

is of, or relating to a cult.

As a verb cull is

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

cult

English

(wikipedia cult)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A group of people with a religious, philosophical or cultural identity sometimes viewed as a sect, often existing on the margins of society or exploitative towards its members.
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  • Devotion to a saint.
  • (lb) A group of people having an obsession with or intense admiration for a particular activity, idea, person or thing.

    • Derived terms

    * cargo cult * cultic * cultist

    See also

    * sect

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Of, or relating to a cult.
  • Enjoyed by a small, loyal group.
    • a cult horror movie

    Usage notes

    The term has a positive connotation for groups of art, music, writing, fiction, and fashion devotees, but a negative connotation for new religious, extreme political, questionable therapeutic, and pyramidal business groups.

    Anagrams

    * (l) ----

    cull

    English

    (Culling)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • 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
    • whitest honey in fairy gardens culled
  • * 1977 , , Penguin Classics, p. 202:
    • 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.
  • 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.

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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= 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.}}
  • A piece unfit for inclusion within a larger group; an inferior specimen.

    • Etymology 2

    Perhaps an abbreviation of (cully).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (slang, dialectal) A fool, gullible person; a dupe.
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, p. 307:
    • 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 ----