weed out


verb
  1. (tr, adverb) to separate out, remove, or eliminate (anything unwanted): to weed out troublesome students

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use weed out in a sentence

  • Indeed it took nearly a couple of years to weed out the disreputable members of this body.

    The Philippine Islands | John Foreman
  • He prevents his men from organizing, and employs spies to weed out the radicals and to sow dissensions.

  • It takes three weeks, nearly, to find out whos good and to weed out the others, and thats just so much time lost.

    Left Half Harmon | Ralph Henry Barbour
  • By this continued process the birds steadily weed out the darker-colored specimens.

    The Meaning of Evolution | Samuel Christian Schmucker
  • David sat for two or three minutes puffing diligently, and then took the weed out of his mouth and looked contemplatively at it.

    David Harum | Edward Noyes Westcott

Other Idioms and Phrases with weed out

weed out

Eliminate as inferior, unsuited, or unwanted, as in She was asked to weed out the unqualified applicants. This expression transfers removing weeds from a garden to removing unwanted elements from other enterprises. [First half of 1500s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.