verb
sift
sihft
verb
1
To pass a dry substance through a sieve to remove lumps or separate fine from coarse.
"Sift the flour and baking powder together before mixing."
"She sifted the sand looking for tiny shells."
2
To examine something closely and methodically, especially to separate what matters from what doesn't.
"Detectives sifted through hours of CCTV footage."
"It took weeks to sift the useful data from the noise."
How to Use Sift
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishTo pass through a sieve, or, more broadly, to go carefully through something to find what's useful or true.
Common pairings
sift through evidence
sift flour
sift out the truth
Word Forms
sifted past tense, sifts plural, sifts singular
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_____ the flour and baking powder together before mixing.
Etymology
From Old English siftan, an old Germanic verb related to the noun sieve.