cull v Cp DAE culling v 1 (1721, 1891). To sort dried and salted cod-fish into grades by quality, size and 'cure.'
   [1739] 1954 INNIS 150 All the fish buyers have the liberty of culling for themselves; it must be their own faults if they take what is bad and it often happens for cheapness they load green fish not thoroughly cured. 1832 MCGREGOR i, 231 Previous to exportation, the fish is again spread out to dry, when it is culled, or sorted, into four qualities. 1881 Nineteenth Century ix, 87 There [the fish] are culled over, sorted into three or four piles according to their quality by experienced cullers. 1898 PROWSE 113 No person shall cull codfish as between vendor and vendee in place or places under the operation of this Act. [1952] 1965 PEACOCK (ed) i, 118 "Culling Fish": We tied up to the pier when the weather changed dull, / There were men standing idle and no one to cull. T 43-64 There'd be a special culler, a man authorized to cull the fish for the firm. He'd cull your fish and whatever decision he came to on it you had to put up with. 1975 BUTLER 69 The fish would be culled by a licensed fish culler keeping the different grades separate. 1980 Evening Telegram 22 Nov, p. 24 All the fish I culled [would be] enough to keep you in fish and brewis for ages and ages.

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