▪ I. winnowing, vbl. n.
(ˈwɪnəʊɪŋ)
[f. winnow v. + -ing1.]
1. The process described s.v. winnow v. 1.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 270 Recabes sunen..ifunden þe wummon astunt of hire windwunge & iueollen aslepe. 1435 Misyn Fire of Love i. ix. 18 In þe wyndouynge þe caff is oute cast. 1538 Elyot, Ventilatio, a fannynge or wynnowynge. 1586 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 25 Wyndoinge of barlie. 1695 Rector's Bk. Clayworth (1910) 113 We look'd in to y⊇ wheat..& upon winnowing in order to sale, found it in good condition. 1755 in 6th Rep. Dep. Kpr. Rec. App. ii. 128 [A machine] for the Dressing, Winnowing, and Cleansing of Flax. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xv. 261 The winnowing was done by women. |
b. fig.: see winnow v. 1 b.
| a 1400 Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. xxiii. 437 Whon þe wynewyng schal be-ginne To parte euel from good. 1636 T. Goodwin Child of Light 44 In these commotions & winnowings of spirit. 1679 in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. (1919) XVI. 146 This being a time of Trying & winnowing doth onely blow away the chaffe. 1851 Gallenga Italy v. 303 Instead of undergoing a thorough sifting and winnowing, the free corps fell every day into a more deplorable state of disorder. 1913 Athenæum 7 June 609/1 He has..subjected the correspondence..to a rigorous winnowing. |
2. Of wings, etc.: see winnow v. 3. Chiefly poet.
| 1844 Mrs. Browning Duchess May Concl. iv, Angel-wings, with their holy winnowings. 1856 Kingsley Glaucus (ed. 3) 120 Small cuttle-fish..put into a jar, will hover and dart in the water..by rapid winnowings of their glassy side-fins. 1897 F. Thompson New Poems 52 The wings Hear I not in prævenient winnowings Of coming songs, that lift my hair and stir it? |
3. attrib. and Comb. (in sense 1), as winnowing operation, winnowing place; esp. in names of appliances for winnowing, as winnowing-basket, winnowing-cloth, winnowing-fan (see fan n.1 1), winnowing-machine, winnowing-mill, winnowing-sheet, winnowing-shovel.
| 1375 Doc. Doune Manor, Wandsworth (Westm. Chapter Munim.), 1 wyndwyngschete debilis. 1378 Ibid., 1 Wynfyn⁓schete de Canabis. 1382 Wyclif Matt. iii. 12 Whos wynwing cloth [is] in his hond. 1382 ― Luke iii. 17 Whos wynewyng tool in his hond. 1388 ― Jer. xv. 7 A wyndewynge instrument. 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke iii. 15–18 He shall make clene the floore of his winnowyng place. 1710 O. Sansom Acc. Life 35 They took away my Winnowing-Fan, which was worth 8s. 1773 Pennsylv. Gaz. 3 Feb. Suppl. 2/3 A winnowing-mill. 1780 Edmondson Her. II. Gloss. s.v. Basket, A Winnowing-Basket. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 31 Winnowing-Machines. Machines of this sort are in pretty general use, where thrashing mills..are not erected. 1862 Ramsay Remin. vi. (ed. 8) 243 The..man surceased his winnowing operations. 1879 B. Taylor Germ. Lit. viii. 253 The winnowing-mill of Time makes sad havoc with works considered immortal in their day. 1886 S. W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., A windering sheet. |
▪ II. ˈwinnowing, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That winnows, in various senses of the verb.
| 1651 J. Reading Guide to Holy City 347 Tentation only burneth out the drosse: it is as a winnowing winde. 1651 Rutherford Let. to Lady Kenmure 28 Sept., We are fallen in winnowing & trying times. 1793 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Ode to Innoc. Wks. 1812 III. 223 The winnowing Butterfly with painted wing. 1820 Keats Autumn ii, Thy hair soft⁓lifted by the winnowing wind. 1865 Swinburne Poems & Ball., Faustine 110 After change of soaring feather And winnowing fin. |
Hence ˈwinnowingly adv.
| 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge (1859) 265 The wing of the slow-sailing owl flitted winnowingly across. |