SIFTING • DICTIONARY ONE.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

... the evenings, between eight and nine o'clock, Anton is always sifting in front of the door, resting his head against the wall. This is his recreation, his one blessed hour of out-door air and rest. He stands with his cap in his hand while I pass, and his face shines as if all the concentrated enjoyment ...

— Bits About Home Matters • Helen Hunt Jackson

... who have received the love of the truth, will be shielded from the powerful delusion that takes the world captive. By the Bible testimony these will detect the deceiver in his disguise. To all, the testing time will come. By the sifting of temptation, the genuine Christian will be revealed. Are the people of God now so firmly established upon His word that they would not yield to the evidence of their senses? Would they, in such a crisis, cling ...

— The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan • Ellen G. White

... be a constant problem for all the valuable nucleus formed by the Park. Experts and the offscourings of the earth drifted to the great government camp and Jim and all his assistants exercised a constant and rigid sifting process. He did not talk much to his new help. His eyes were keen to catch the first glimpse of the river. The men caught his strain and none of them spoke again. Cottontails quivered out of sight as the automobile rushed on. An occasional ...

— Still Jim • Honore Willsie Morrow

... so flaming a narrative of Theodore's merits that the old Lady grew curious to see him. Accordingly, the Porteress was commissioned to convey him to the Parlour grate. In the interim, the supposed Beggar was sifting the Lay-Sister with respect to the fate of Agnes: Her evidence only corroborated the Domina's assertions. She said that Agnes had been taken ill on returning from confession, had never quitted her bed from that moment, and that ...

— The Monk; a romance • M. G. Lewis

... Homer once will be nothing but a gentleman now." And at this point, having decided that Mr. Raleigh was fully worth unlimited love, she added to her resolves a desire for content with whatever amount of friendly affection he chose to bestow upon her. And all this, while sifting the sugar over her raspberries. Nevertheless, she felt, in the midst of her heroic content, a strange jealousy at hearing the two thus discuss days in which she had no share, and she watched them furtively, with a sharp, hateful suspicion dawning in her mind. Now, as ...

— Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 39, January, 1861 • Various

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