WINNOW • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Winnow

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verb

Winnow v. t. (past & past part. winnowed; pres. part. winnowing)

To separate, and drive off, the chaff from by means of wind; to fan; as, to winnow grain. "Ho winnoweth barley to-night in the threshing floor."

To sift, as for the purpose of separating falsehood from truth; to separate, as bad from good. "Winnow well this thought, and you shall find This light as chaff that flies before the wind."

To beat with wings, or as with wings.(Poetic) "Now on the polar winds; then with quick fan Winnows the buxom air."

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Etymology of 'Winnow'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Winnow" Quotes from Famous Books

... and mules are then driven upon it and round it in all directions, a woman being in the centre like a pivot, and holding the reins: the horses are driven by little girls. The corn thrashed out is cleared away by the men, others winnow it, others heap it, others supply fresh layers. Every one seems happy and noisy, the women and girls singing, the men occasionally resting from their labour to pay their gallant attentions. The scene is so animated as to inspirit ...

— Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808 • Lt-Col. Pinkney

... have been the first to announce your brother's legacy to you, but I am glad whenever my news reach you without being quite stale. I see but few persons here. I begin my letters without knowing when I shall be able to fill them, and then am to winnow a little what I hear, that I may not send you absolute secondhand fables: for though I cannot warrant all I tell you, I hate to send you every improbable tale that is vented. You like, as one always does in absence, to hear the common occurrences of your own country; and you see I am ...

— The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3 • Horace Walpole

... Mustard (another noble Ingredient) be of the best Tewksberry; or else compos'd of the soundest and weightiest Yorkshire Seed, exquisitely sifted, winnow'd, and freed from the Husks, a little (not over-much) dry'd by the Fire, temper'd to the consistence of a Pap with Vinegar, in which shavings of the Horse-Radish have been steep'd: Then cutting an Onion, and putting it into a small Earthen Gally-Pot, or some thick Glass of that ...

— Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets • John Evelyn

... winnow corn in Britain. How do they conduct that process at Rome? A cart-load of grain is poured out on the barn-floor; some dozen or score of women squat down around it, and with the hand separate the chaff from the wheat, pickle by pickle. ...

— Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber - Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge • James Aitken Wylie

Words linked to "Winnow" : strain, winnowing, withdraw, take, sieve, cull out, select, sift, fan, pick out, separation, take away, winnow out, sifting, remove