SIFTING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Sifting

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/sˈɪftɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Sift v. t. (past & past part. sifted; pres. part. sifting)

To separate with a sieve, as the fine part of a substance from the coarse; as, to sift meal or flour; to sift powder; to sift sand or lime.

To separate or part as if with a sieve. "When yellow sands are sifted from below, The glittering billows give a golden show."

To examine critically or minutely; to scrutinize. "Sifting the very utmost sentence and syllable." "Opportunity I here have had To try thee, sift thee." "Let him but narrowly sift his ideas."

To sift out, to search out with care, as if by sifting.

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Etymology of 'Sifting'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sifting" Quotes from Famous Books

... some of the incidents which would render the narrative too complicated to be interesting to those who wish more for a view of noted characters in remarkable situations, than for a minute and accurate sifting of ...

— Unknown to History - A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland • Charlotte M. Yonge

... among the troops. The officers were impatient and snappy, their countenances clouded with the tales of misfortune. The troops, sifting through the forest, were sullen. In the youth's company once a man's laugh rang out. A dozen soldiers turned their faces quickly toward him and ...

— The Red Badge of Courage - An Episode of the American Civil War • Stephen Crane

... when there is anything to be done, then there is a sifting! But now we have you, with all our own Lily's spirit, I shall be happy about Jane for this winter ...

— Beechcroft at Rockstone • Charlotte M. Yonge

... or in New Zealand, you will be the more rejoiced because it will bring before you the memory of the youthful and blooming student who inspected your hospitals with such keen appreciation, so impartially sifting the ...

— Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z • Various

... sat on the back porch in the after luncheon hour to get with the freshness of October what sunshine the westerning sun was sifting through the red and gold of the maples beyond the garden walls. He was in the undress uniform of the artillery, and still wore the trefoil of the Second Corps. An effort by Ann to remove his soiled army garb and substitute his lay dress caused an outbreak of anger which ...

— Westways • S. Weir Mitchell

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