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
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
Despite industry-wide budget cuts and a shortage of doc distributors for nonfiction social issue fare, Powers winnowed the list of 23 docs from over 1,000 submissions.
—Addie Morfoot, Variety, 6 Aug. 2025
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
Despite industry-wide budget cuts and a shortage of doc distributors for nonfiction social issue fare, Powers winnowed the list of 23 docs from over 1,000 submissions.
—Addie Morfoot, Variety, 6 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for winnowed
Verb
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The two-minute clip eases audiences into the documentary's unique visual approach, which tells its story almost entirely through 911 calls and footage culled from body cameras worn by police officers.—
Randall Colburn,
Entertainment Weekly,
24 Sep. 2025
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And it’s worked — statistics culled this year show that 58 percent of the population is now considered active.—
Blythe Lawrence,
Forbes.com,
18 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The logo, hands, indexes, and rotor are trimmed in British racing green—the color of the legendary car brand.—
Carol Besler,
Robb Report,
3 Oct. 2025
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Her dark brown bob was freshly trimmed and curled toward her face; the top brushed and styled over the left side of her head.—
Kaleigh Werner,
Footwear News,
2 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Vance said one portion of Democrats are making unreasonable demands to restore more than $1 trillion over the next decade in healthcare spending that was cut earlier this year.—
Bart Jansen,
USA Today,
4 Oct. 2025
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Training, professional development, and the Safe Cities Partnership are among the areas cut.—
Paul Egan,
Freep.com,
3 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Despite the bold tones and sculptural silhouettes on display, the beauty direction stayed pared-back and refined, focused on skincare, highlighting Prada Beauty’s skincare line.—
Kristine Kwak,
StyleCaster,
28 Sep. 2025
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Meanwhile, Dreaming Eli was more pared back with three, eyebrow-scraping top lashes, choosing length over volume.—
Essence,
Essence,
23 Sep. 2025
Verb
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But a House Fiscal Agency report shows that total artificially reduced by the way billions in federal funding is accounted for, by moving Medicaid money to contingency funds where they are not included in the budget total.—
Paul Egan,
Freep.com,
3 Oct. 2025
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The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal spending on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — another priority for Democrats — will be reduced by more than $1 trillion over the next decade as a result of provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill.—
Scott Neuman,
NPR,
3 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Winnowed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/winnowed. Accessed 7 Oct. 2025.
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