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
The leadership of the AI trade has been winnowed down to Alphabet along with memory stocks and the energy/electrification infrastructure suppliers, which are exploiting product scarcity to impose a quasi-tax on the builders.
—
Michael Santoli, CNBC, 23 Feb. 2026
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has winnowed thousands of submissions for its Name a Snowplow contest down to 30 finalists.
—Anthony Bettin, CBS News, 5 Feb. 2026
After fermentation and toasting, the beans are winnowed and placed in a melanger, a stone grinder that runs for up to 72 to turn the beans into a velvety, smooth paste.
—Brock Keeling, Oc Register, 4 Feb. 2026
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.
—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
Michael Santoli, CNBC, 23 Feb. 2026
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has winnowed thousands of submissions for its Name a Snowplow contest down to 30 finalists.
—Anthony Bettin, CBS News, 5 Feb. 2026
After fermentation and toasting, the beans are winnowed and placed in a melanger, a stone grinder that runs for up to 72 to turn the beans into a velvety, smooth paste.
—Brock Keeling, Oc Register, 4 Feb. 2026
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.
—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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for winnowed
Verb
-
Many of the film’s crew members were culled from the ranks of CinéBangui, a training program backed by Lyon’s CinéFabrique film school.—
Christopher Vourlias,
Variety,
14 May 2026
-
The number of bears captured and then culled nearly tripled from a year earlier to 14,601, also marking an all-time high.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
13 May 2026
Verb
-
Saudi Arabia and the UAE trimmed their holdings of US Treasurys in March by nearly $17 billion, as the Iran conflict hit crude exports, their key source of dollar income.—
Matthew Martin,
semafor.com,
19 May 2026
-
Some limbs were trimmed from the large trees that provide shade.—
Joe Davidson,
Sacbee.com,
18 May 2026
Verb
-
The Tempo cut it to three midway through the fourth while Brittany Sykes (27 points, seven assists) sparked Toronto’s rally.—
Marisa Ingemi,
Los Angeles Times,
16 May 2026
-
Kreutzer cuts clunkily and repeatedly between the ongoing crises in two households, presumably implying that the men in these women’s lives are all tarred with the same patriarchal brush.—
Stephanie Bunbury,
Deadline,
15 May 2026
Verb
-
Stocks pared most of their losses, and a rally in oil prices lost steam.—
Allison Morrow,
CNN Money,
20 May 2026
-
Because of its reusable first stage and payload fairing, SpaceX has pared back internal launch costs to about $15 million.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
18 May 2026
Verb
-
Bayard has a point in critiquing the attitude which maintains that engagement with literature can basically be reduced to an itinerary.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
21 May 2026
-
The stadium typically operates at a capacity crowd of around 67,500 for NFL games, but that will be slightly reduced to approximately 65,827 for the World Cup.—
Elias Burke,
New York Times,
21 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Winnowed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/winnowed. Accessed 22 May. 2026.
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