## Meanings
1. To select and gather the best items from a larger group.
2. To kill selected animals in order to reduce a population.
3. An organized killing of selected animals.

## Examples
- The editor culled the finest poems from hundreds of submissions.
- Officials decided to cull part of the deer herd to protect the forest.
- The badger cull provoked angry protests from animal rights groups.

## Derived Forms
- ben-cull
- cullable
- culler
- culpepper
- mollying-cull
- overcull
- unculled

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *leǵ-
- Root: cullen
- Root: cuillir
- Root: colligō

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

## AI Etymology
Cull is from Middle English cullen, cuilen, coilen, from Old French cuillir (“collect, gather, select”), from Latin colligō (“gather together”). Doublet of coil. Important recorded forms include *leǵ- (Proto-Indo-European), cullen (Middle English), cuillir (Old French), and colligō (Latin). Current senses include to select and gather the best items from a larger group, to kill selected animals in order to reduce a population, and an organized killing of selected animals. The wider family includes derived forms such as ben-cull, cullable, culler, culpepper, and mollying-cull.

## Topics
- People & Society

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