"winnowing" in the noun sense

1. winnow, winnowing, sifting

the act of separating grain from chaff

"the winnowing was done by women"

"winnowing" in the verb sense

1. winnow

separate the chaff from grain by using air currents

"She stood there winnowing grain all day in the field"

2. winnow

blow on

"The wind was winnowing her hair"

"the wind winnowed the grass"

3. cull out, winnow

select desirable parts from a group or list

"cull out the interesting letters from the poet's correspondence"

"winnow the finalists from the long list of applicants"

4. winnow, fan

blow away or off with a current of air

"winnow chaff"

"The speaker ceased to be an amusing little gnat to be fanned away and was kicked off the forum"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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