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.
—
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
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
-
The court’s dismissal paves the way for the flock of around 330 ostriches to be culled.—
Max Saltman,
CNN Money,
6 Nov. 2025
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All the information that Gemini is drawing upon will be culled from the roughly 250 million places stored in Google Maps’ database of reviews accumulated during the past 20 years.—
Michael Liedtke,
Fortune,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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By the time the strike began, patrol had trimmed its ask significantly.—
Kylea Henseler,
Outside,
9 Jan. 2026
-
Stocks that dominated portfolios in 2025 are now being trimmed to finance new positions elsewhere.—
Luke Fountain,
CNBC,
8 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
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.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
11 Jan. 2026
-
This same staff cut him to make room for a waiver-wire claim before the start of the 2024 season.—
Charlotte Observer,
Charlotte Observer,
11 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Renk and Leonardo initially led the pan-European Stoxx 600 index, moving more than 4% higher, but pared gains through the session.—
Tasmin Lockwood,
CNBC,
8 Jan. 2026
-
Trump’s edict was light on details — and the shares pared those losses in later trading — but the message was sent.—
Bloomberg,
Mercury News,
8 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
While many areas are seeing visibility reduced to between one and three miles, patchy dense fog is reducing visibilities to as low as one quarter mile in spots.—
NC Weather Bot,
Charlotte Observer,
10 Jan. 2026
-
Unable to turn back against the strong currents of the Napo, the party, now reduced to just 50, carried on downriver toward the Amazon.—
Stanley Stewart,
Travel + Leisure,
10 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Winnowed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/winnowed. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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