weed out

verb

1. tr, adverb to separate out, remove, or eliminate (anything unwanted)

   to weed out troublesome students

Idioms and Phrases

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]

Example Sentences

The previous government brought in powers to weed out projects from the queue which were not ready to start, under a “first ready, first connected” system.

From BBC

Trump asks for demographic information and political beliefs of his followers to weed out the “verified citizens” from the enemy Other.

From Salon

“With marriage being the stakes, that tends to weed out a lot of people.”

From Los Angeles Times

The appeals court also rejected an argument from the SEC that the rule was necessary because it would weed out fraud, ruling that the SEC is conflating a lack of disclosure with deception.

From Seattle Times

But the jury was carefully chosen, after an arduous process, to weed out people who pay enough attention to the news to have previously formed this opinion of Trump.

From Salon

Related Words

• cull
• derive
• distill
• elicit
• exact
• extort
• extricate
• glean
• obtain
• pluck
• pry
• pull
• reap
• separate
• siphon
• squeeze
• withdraw
• wrest
• wring