sift

sift (sift)

transitive verb

to pass through a sieve so as to separate the coarse from the fine particles, or to break up lumps, as of flour
to scatter (a pulverized substance) by or as by the use of a sieve
to inspect or examine with care, as by testing or questioning; weigh (evidence, etc.)
to separate; screen; distinguish to sift fact from fable

Etymology: ME siften < OE siftan < sife, sieve

intransitive verb

sift′er noun

To evaluate
investigate, scrutinize, probe; see examine 1.
To put through a sieve
bolt, strain, screen, winnow, grade, sort, size, searce; see also clean, filter 2, purify.

Object

flour: Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl with a good pinch of salt.
em: Supplementary EM sifted in Chairman's Sift of 25 October.
wheat: My criteria for sifting the wheat from the chaff is simple, I'm only keeping the remarkable.
sugar: Just before you put it into the oven sift a little sugar over the top.
powder: Sift a little cocoa powder over the top followed by a light sprinkling of icing sugar.
sand: He continued sifting the sand staring through his mother.

Preposition: in

flour: Sift in the flour and baking powder, then gently fold into the eggs before adding to the nut and spice mixture.

Preposition: through

wreckage: Experts, who are already sifting through the wreckage of the rolling stock, are blaming a signals failure for the tragedy.
rubble: It was later in the movie, when the rescuers are sifting through the rubble a day later.
pile: Nothing irritates trust administrators more than sifting through piles of irrelevant applications!
hundred: In a follow-up the following week, Anthony returned having sifted through hundreds of responses from Slades the world over.
thousand: After sifting through thousands of CDs to find these gems we expected great things of our performers and those expectations were more than met.
mountain: Being a scab, I started sifting through the mountains of stuff in the ' throw away ' pile.

Modifying Another Word

individually: This is because associations can only be found by sifting individually through each of the millions of SNPs in the genome.
carefully: Put on a pair of gloves and carefully sift through the compost before you stick a fork into it.
together: Sift together the flour, salt and cinnamon into a large bowl, then stir through the yeast.
then: The sand was then sifted using Linda's course cooking sieve, the fine sand being removed with her fine sieve!

Followed by an intransitive particle

through: Natural forest fires also provide much charred wood, which many birds enjoy sifting through.
out: Or perhaps the game we played on the beach in our youth, flicking bottle tops round a track sifted out in the sand.
down: Next, add a thin cover of sphagnum moss, which will prevent the soil from sifting down to the drainage layer.

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