winnow

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.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪnoʊ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪnəʊ/
• Rhymes: -ɪnəʊ

• Audio (US):

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winnow (third-person singular simple present winnows, present participle winnowing, simple past and past participle winnowed)

2. (transitive, agriculture, literal) To subject (granular material, especially food grain) to a current of air separating heavier and lighter components, as grain from chaff.

   Synonym: wind

   • 1998 January 3, Sid Perkins, “Thin Skin”, in Science News, volume 165, number 1, page 11:

     [W]ind began to winnow the river delta's dried sediments.

4. (transitive, figuratively) To separate, sift, analyse, or test by separating items having different values.

   Synonym: comb out

   They winnowed the field to twelve.

   They winnowed the winners from the losers.

   They winnowed the losers from the winners.

6. (transitive, literary) To blow upon or toss about by blowing; to set in motion as with a fan or wings.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 206:

     The light snow lay on the narrow and winding path before them, pure as if just fresh winnowed by the wind.

   • 1872, Elliott Coues, Key to North American Birds:

     Gulls average much larger than terns, with stouter build; the feet are larger and more ambulatorial, the wings are shorter and not so thin; the birds winnow the air in a steady course unlike the buoyant dashing flight of their relatives.

7. (intransitive, literary, dated) To move about with a flapping motion, as of wings; to flutter.

• Used with the adverb or preposition down; see also winnow down.
• Used with the adverbs or prepositions through, away, and out.

• winnow down

winnow (plural winnows)

1. That which winnows or which is used in winnowing; a contrivance for fanning or winnowing grain.
2. The act of winnowing

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “winnow”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “winnow”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “winnow”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.