Definition

1. Verb:

   • To separate grain from chaff using a current of air: The traditional agricultural process of using wind or a fan to blow away the lighter chaff, leaving the heavier grain.
   • To separate, sift, or select the desirable from the undesirable: To examine a group of things or people carefully in order to choose the best or most useful ones, or to remove the less desirable elements.
   • To blow on or through; to fan: (Literary/poetic) For wind or air to blow lightly over or through something.

2. Noun:

   • The act or process of winnowing: The specific action of separating grain from chaff.

Usage and Examples

• Verb (Agricultural meaning):

  • Farmers used to winnow the wheat by tossing it into the air on a breezy day.
  • The machine winnows the rice efficiently, separating the husks from the kernels.

• Verb (Figurative meaning of selection):

  • The committee will winnow the list of hundreds of applicants down to a few finalists.
  • We must winnow the essential facts from all this confusing data.

• Verb (Literary meaning of blowing):

  • A gentle breeze winnowed the tall grass in the meadow.
  • (Poetic) The wind winnowed her long hair.

• Noun:

  • The winnow was a daily task after the harvest.
  • The final winnow of candidates is the most difficult phase.

Advanced Usage

• "To winnow out": A common phrasal construction emphasizing the removal of unwanted elements.
  • The initial interview process is designed to winnow out unqualified candidates.
  • Time will winnow out the false theories from the true ones.

Variants and Related Words

• Winnower (n): A person or a machine that winnows.
  • The farmer is a skilled winnower.
• Winnowing (n/adj): The process or act of winnowing; used to describe tools (e.g., winnowing fan, winnowing basket) or the action itself.
  • The winnowing process is crucial for clean grain.

Synonyms

• Separate: To divide or set apart.
• Sift: To examine carefully and select.
• Cull: To select from a large quantity; to remove inferior items.
• Filter: To remove unwanted elements.
• Fan: To blow air upon (for the literal agricultural sense).

Related Phrasal Verbs / Constructions

• Winnow down: To reduce a large number to a smaller, selected group through a process of elimination.
  • We need to winnow down these 50 ideas to the top five.
• Winnow away: To remove or eliminate gradually.
  • The investigation helped to winnow away the baseless accusations.

Related Idioms/Phrases

• To separate the wheat from the chaff: This idiom is a direct metaphorical equivalent to "winnow," meaning to distinguish valuable people or things from worthless ones.
  • The difficult test is meant to separate the wheat from the chaff.
• Winnowing process: Refers to any systematic procedure of elimination or selection.
  • The winnowing process in academic publishing is very rigorous.

Noun

1. the act of separating grain from chaff
   • the winnowing was done by women

Verb

1. blow away or off with a current of air
   • winnow chaff
2. 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
3. blow on
   • The wind was winnowing her hair
   • the wind winnowed the grass
4. separate the chaff from by using air currents
   • She stood there winnowing chaff all day in the field