Etymology From Middle English cullen, cuilen, coilen, from Old French cuillir (“collect, gather, select”), from Latin colligō (“gather together”). Doublet of coil.
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
Likewise, performances culled mostly from the night's winning acts - with no special guests or even much in the way of mashups, a longtime AMA specialty - provided a much-needed shot in the arm for a reeling local populace.2020 March 20, Doug Freeman, “Stuff That Works”, in The Austin Chronicle, volume 39, number 29, page 56:
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— […]1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “Eleanore”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 26:
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.1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977, page 202:
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
Broadly To kill (animals, etc).
5
To lay off in order to reduce the size of, get rid of.
"Will cull any objects further from the camera than a given distance. When used in combination with camera frustum culling, this can be used to avoid culling nearby objects that are outside the camera frustum, but still visible in reflections. It is also useful to cull small objects far from the camera."2023 July 17, Blender Foundation, "Blender 3.6 Manual":
Etymology From Middle English cullen, cuilen, coilen, from Old French cuillir (“collect, gather, select”), from Latin colligō (“gather together”). Doublet of coil.
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.2012 December 21, Isobel Montgomery, “A year that showed the best and worst of Britain”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 2, page 31:
3
Agriculture, Business, Lifestyle An individual animal selected to be killed, or item of produce to be discarded.
4
A lobster having only one claw.
Seafood industry
5
A piece unfit for inclusion within a larger group; an inferior specimen.
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.1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 307: