plural noun

• Seedlings, trees, or fruit which have been removed to improve the growth of those remaining.

  ‘There is enough room left for a stall-fed cow and a few pigs, which he feeds with thinnings from his vegetable beds.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘At a later stage of growth, young rape thinnings are sometimes sold as spring greens.’
  • ‘Harvest the first thinnings as soon as four weeks later.’
  • ‘You don't need every tree to be of good form as many of them will be removed early in the life of the crop as thinnings.’
  • ‘If you grow your own radishes, use the thinnings from your garden in salads.’
  • ‘Spring onions are well suited to growing in pots on the deck; the thinnings are useful; and they are hardy.’
  • ‘Thin seedlings when they're 2 inches tall; use thinnings in salads and continue harvesting all season.’
  • ‘I recommend filling a bowl with sliced young leeks, whole carrot and beetroot thinnings, tender spinach leaves, small florets of raw cauliflower, fresh peas from the pod, and a clump of ginger mint and flat leaf parsley.’
  • ‘The seedlings you remove can go straight on the compost heap, or in the case of some veg, such as lettuce and beets, the thinnings can be eaten.’
  • ‘The launch of the plant is not only seen as providing a green energy source, but also as a valuable market for forest thinnings.’
  • ‘It will use sawdust, bark and woodchips together with forest thinnings to generate heat for the sawmill's timber drying operations.’
  • ‘It is proposed that the waste timber product would be obtained from local forestry residues, including thinnings.’