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winnow

win·now

UK/ˈwɪnəʊ/ US/ˈwɪnoʊ/ uncommon dated literary
verb (4) noun (1)

verb

1.

separate from chaff

  • “She stood there winnowing grain all day in the field”
Synonyms
2.

blow on

  • “The wind was winnowing her hair”
3.

treat by exposure to a current of air so that waste matter is eliminated

  • “winnow grain”
4.

remove by a current of air

  • “winnow chaff”

noun

1.

the act of separating grain from chaff

  • “the winnowing was done by women”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English wyndwen, from Old English windwian (“to winnow, fan, ventilate”), from Proto-West Germanic *windwōn, from Proto-Germanic *windwōną, *winþijaną (“to throw about, winnow”), from Proto-Indo-European *wē- (“to winnow, thresh”). Cognate with West Frisian wynje (“to winnow”), dialectal Dutch winden, winnen (“to winnow”), Middle High German winden (“to winnow”), Icelandic vinsa (“to pick out, weed”), Latin vannus (“a winnowing basket”). See fan, van.

Phrases

  • winnow grain from chaff
  • winnow sheet
  • winnow the wheat from the chaff
  • winnowing basket
  • winnowing fan
  • winnowing fork
  • winnowing machine
  • winnowing shovel

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.