cull n Cp OED ~ sb³ 1 'a selection' obs (1618-1692), O Sup² (1958-) for sense 1; cp EDD sb³ 4 'inferior articles ... picked out from others' for sense 2. See CULL v.
   1 Of dried and salted cod-fish, herring, etc, the act of sorting, or the product of sorting, into grades; the criteria by which fish are sorted; the grades into which fish are divided.
   [1911] 1930 COAKER 33 The cull of herring, which the Board of Trade established in the early spring, caused great dissatisfaction amongst the packers. 1920 FPU (Twillingate) Minutes 11 Mar Then quite a discussion arose concerning fish, about different qualities of fish and also the different prices paid for fish and the standard cull of fish. 1962 Nfld Fisheries Conf 251 A man has to take a bulk of fish to light-cure it , and when he gets it dried he has to stand the cull, and if the subsidy is only on the high quality ... no advantage to him at all. T 168/70-65 That used to be all the cull in my day, but now today there's more culls than that on it. 1965 Evening Telegram 4 Nov, p. 3 [Mr Antle] also called on the federation to press for the return of the salt fish cull. 1966 SCAMMELL 82 You'll have to watch that temper of yours. Chaps like Bill Pratt can be pretty ugly if they don't like the cull. 1979 TIZZARD 90 Wherever he thought he'd get the best price or the best cull that is where he would take the fish.
   2 The lowest commercial grade of salted cod-fish, lobsters, etc; CULLAGE.
   1934 LOUNSBURY 58 Each producer culled his own fish, the 'refuse' fish or 'culls' being set aside and sold to less discriminating buyers than those who took 'merchantable' fish. 1953 Nfld Fish Develop Report 88 On the average, about five per cent of the total number of lobsters shipped are condemned. Rather less than 15 per cent are 'weaks' and somewhat over 5 per cent are 'culls.'

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