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Decide vs Cull - What's the difference?

decide | cull |

As verbs the difference between decide and cull

is that decide is to resolve (a contest, problem, dispute, etc.); to choose, determine, or settle while cull is to pick or take someone or something (from a larger group).

As a noun cull is

a selection.

decide

English

Verb

(decid)
  • To resolve (a contest, problem, dispute, etc.); to choose, determine, or settle.
    • The election will be decided on foreign policies.
    We must decide our next move.
    Her last-minute goal decided the game.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; / Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then.
  • To make a judgment, especially after deliberation.
    • You must decide between good and evil.
    I have decided that it is healthier to walk to work.
  • * Bible, 1 Kings xx. 40
    • So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it.
  • To cause someone to come to a decision.
  • * 1920 , , "The Adventure of the Three Gables" (Norton edition, 2005, p. 1537),
    • It decides me to look into the matter, for if it is worth anyone's while to take so much trouble, there must be something in it.
  • (obsolete) To cut off; to separate.
  • * Fuller
    • Our seat denies us traffic here; / The sea, too near, decides us from the rest.

    Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See

    Synonyms

    * make up one's mind * choose * determine * pick

    Related terms

    * decider * decision * decisive

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words English reporting verbs English words suffixed with -cide ----

    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 ----