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
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
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
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
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 court’s dismissal paves the way for the flock of around 330 ostriches to be culled.—
Max Saltman,
CNN Money,
6 Nov. 2025
-
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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United Airlines said its international flights and hub-to-hub operations will not be trimmed.—
Eve Chen,
USA Today,
7 Nov. 2025
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Was the younger Lincoln a part of material drafted for a lengthier second half of the series that got trimmed?—
Daniel Fienberg,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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An emergency order by the FAA on Thursday said airlines have to cut traffic by 4%, resulting in about 800 flight cancellations for Friday that increased to over 1,000 throughout the day, according to FlightAware.—
Emma Tucker,
CNN Money,
8 Nov. 2025
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Southwest Airlines cut about 120 flights Friday.—
JOSH FUNK,
Arkansas Online,
8 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Dan Rogers, vp and executive producer at the Opry, tells Billboard how the 20 album choices were pared down from the Opry 100 greatest songs list.—
Melinda Newman,
Billboard,
6 Nov. 2025
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Her wavy, dark brunette hair was styled in a side part, while Queen Letizia’s makeup was pared back.—
Kelsey Stewart,
Footwear News,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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At 40 of the country’s busiest airports, flights coming and going will be reduced by 10% this week.—
The Kim Komando Show,
FOXNews.com,
8 Nov. 2025
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For a family of three, the benefit would be reduced by $275.—
Daniel McFadin,
Arkansas Online,
7 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Winnowed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/winnowed. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.
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