▪ I. culler
(ˈkʌlə(r))
Also 5 culyur, 6 cullyar.
[f. cull v.1 + -er1. In 2 the suffix was perh. -ard.]
1. a. One who culls, selects, or gathers.
| 1483 Cath. Angl. 86 A Culyur, collector. 1611 Cotgr., Cueilleur..a picker, chuser, or culler. 1809 Syd. Smith Ess. Wks. 1867 I. 178 A mere culler of simples. 1883 E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 255 The busiest of cullers drained dry of even his November stories. |
b. (See quots.)
| 1849 Rep. Comm. Patents: Agric. (U.S.) 322 When the tobacco is taken down, the ‘cullers’ take each plant and pull off the defective and trashy ground and worm-eaten leaves. 1881 E. Ingersoll Oyster-Industry 243 Culler, one who picks over oysters, or culls out the worthless and smaller ones. 1953 Times Lit. Suppl. 20 Mar. 194/5 Mr. Thomson describes his every-day duties and experiences as a ‘culler’ employed by the Government of New Zealand to shoot destructive deer. 1969 L. G. Sorden Lumberjack Lingo 30 Culler, man who quickly graded and sorted, by picking out the culls or rejects, lumber being cut at the mill. |
c. local. (See quot.)
| 1906 J. Hockaday in Vict. Hist. Cornwall I. 521/2 Many comparatively rough blocks [of slate-rock] are refused by the contract men, and these are passed on to men and boys called cullers, who are paid a fixed price, and make as much out of them as they can. |
† 2. Farming. (See quots.) Cf. cull n.3 2.
| 1538 Elyot Bibl., Reieculæ, uel reijculæ oues, sheepe drawen out of the folde for aege or syckenesse, kebbers, crones, or cullyars. 1617 Minsheu Duct. Ling., Cullers. 1721 Bailey, Cullers, the worst sort of sheep, or those which are left of a flock when the best are picked out. C[ountry Word]. |
▪ II. culler
obs. form of colour.