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/wˈɪnˌoʊɪŋ/ Listen

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."

Winnow v. i. To separate chaff from grain. "Winnow not with every wind."

noun

Winnowing n. The act of one who, or that which, winnows.

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Etymology of 'Winnowing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Winnowing" Quotes from Famous Books

... Stands covered o'er with snow, and then demands The fruit of all his toil. The fowls of heaven, Tamed by the cruel season, crowd around The winnowing store, and claim the little boon Which Providence ...

— McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... reduced the straw to a coarse chaff mingled with the grain, so also the treatment in Cyprus remains to the present day. The result is a mixture of dirt and sand which is only partially rejected by the equally primitive method of winnowing. ...

— Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879 • Sir Samuel W. Baker

... misfortune occurred: Seeing herself all withered, the woman took the fan with which her companion had been winnowing maize for the manufacture of beer and shut herself into her hut, carefully closing the door. There she began to tear off her old skin, throwing it on the fan. The skin came off easily, a new one appearing in its place. The operation was nearing completion. There ...

— An African Adventure • Isaac F. Marcosson

... completely blanched; it is then once more dried by the fire or in the sun, and passed under a large wooden roller, and through a hair sieve. When it has become white and fine, it is placed in a kind of linen winnowing-fan, which is kept damp in a peculiar manner. The workman takes a mouthful of water, and spurts it out like fine rain over the fan, in which the meal is alternately shaken and moistened in the manner just mentioned, until it assumes the shape of small globules, which are constantly stirred ...

— A Woman's Journey Round the World • Ida Pfeiffer

... thought of the need for whole-hearted and glad service, and of the worthlessness of external acts of apparent worship which have not such behind them. What a deal of seeming wheat would turn out to be chaff if that winnowing fan which is in Christ's hand were applied to it! How small ...

— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

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