weed out
(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
In an industry dominated by hits like ‘Exploited Teen,’ raising the minimum age would weed out the rule-obeying responsible.
Barely Legal, Sometimes Mature: Should Porn Raise the Minimum Age to 21? | Aurora Snow | October 26, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTHe uses his detective skills to weed out the glory hounds who are trying to profit from having an in-house ghost.
Vosshall designed her pilot study to weed out this variable.
Mosquitoes Love Some People More and Science Wants to Know Why | Josh Dzieza | August 6, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTEmployers like to require army experience as a pre-requisite in order to weed out the Palestinian applicants.
The Not-So-Bright Future of Palestine's Class of 2013 | Maysoon Zayid | June 21, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTShe helped create a more cautious industry that works to weed out any underage performers.
10 Fascinating Porn Star Memoirs: Aurora Snow on Porn Tell-Alls | Aurora Snow | May 29, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
Indeed it took nearly a couple of years to weed out the disreputable members of this body.
The Philippine Islands | John ForemanHe prevents his men from organizing, and employs spies to weed out the radicals and to sow dissensions.
The Book of Life: Vol. I Mind and Body; Vol. II Love and Society | Upton SinclairIt 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 BarbourBy this continued process the birds steadily weed out the darker-colored specimens.
The Meaning of Evolution | Samuel Christian SchmuckerDavid 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
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.
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