as in culled
to remove less desirable choices from a group or list
They winnowed the pool of applicants down to a few of the strongest candidates. I tried to winnow out the options that weren't a good value for the price.
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Recent Examples of winnowed
Finally, Thoreau winnowed once again, translating some, but not all, of the list items to his charts of general phenomena, and carefully noting the dates on which each phenomenon occurred in the spaces of the grid.
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Literary Hub, 17 Dec. 2025
These associates would then be winnowed out over time.
—Atta Tarki, Harvard Business Review, 2 Oct. 2025
West Point cancelled an award ceremony for Tom Hanks, after having already winnowed its library of potentially offensive books.
—Louis Menand, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2025
The museum has closed and the entire Klairmont collection — which in recent years was winnowed down to 284 cars — will be sold by Mecum Auctions.
—Nina Metz, Boston Herald, 17 Sep. 2025
Overnight, this winnowed the field.
—Robert Hoban, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
The outcome has been regulatory and policy decisions that have winnowed vaccine access and development.
—Stephanie Armour, CNN Money, 18 Aug. 2025
As of early August, Airbus had winnowed the gap to just 20 units, with 12,155 lifetime A320-family shipments, according to the data.
—Jason Ma, Fortune, 17 Aug. 2025
During his first five-year contract, Bennett, his staff and the board winnowed down the company’s budget to better match annual expenses and ticket sales, while also creating the Detour series of smaller, nontraditional opera works to expand the company’s audience.
—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for winnowed
Verb
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The exorbitant cast can be culled.—
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Members of the music branch culled this shortlist of 15 songs from a master list of 65 eligible songs.—
Verb
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By the time the strike began, patrol had trimmed its ask significantly.—
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Stocks that dominated portfolios in 2025 are now being trimmed to finance new positions elsewhere.—
Verb
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Carolina cut the lead 17-14 at halftime after a 1-yard touchdown run by Hubbard and a 16-yard scramble by Young, the second-longest TD run of his career.—
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This same staff cut him to make room for a waiver-wire claim before the start of the 2024 season.—
Verb
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Guerrero, the pastor, said people have pared down their routines out of fear.—
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The restaurant itself is elegantly pared down, with raw plaster walls, white tablecloths, and Scandinavian furniture.—
Verb
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The defendants' sentences were reduced because they were abused by the victims, in accordance with the New York Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, legislation that Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney criticized.—
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The report points out that keyboards and computers reduced the need for handwriting, and calculators automated basic math.—
Cite this Entry
“Winnowed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/winnowed. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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