▪ I. sift, n. rare.
[In sense 1 = MDu. sifte, zifte (Du. zift), also MDu. and MLG. sichte. In other senses f. sift v.]
† 1. A sieve. Obs.
| 1499 Promp. Parv. (Pynson), Cyue or cifte, cribrum, cribellum. 1648 Hexham ii. s.v. Zijgen, To Runne through a Sift, or a Strainer. |
2. The act of sifting (in quot. fig.); the fact of falling as from a sieve.
| 1814 F. Burney Wanderer I. 60, I don't say this by way of a sift. 1866 B. Taylor Poet's Jrnl. Dec., The rustling sift of falling snow. |
3. ‘Something that falls or passes as if from the meshes of a sieve; sifting or sifted material’ (Cent. Dict. 1891).
| 1876 G. M. Hopkins Wr. Deutschland iv, in Poems (1967) 52, I am soft sift In an hourglass. 1962 M. E. Murie Far North ii. ix. 192 The little sift of snow on the ice was marked only by tracks of ox. |
▪ II. sift, v.
(sɪft)
Forms: 1 siftan, 4 siften (5 -yn), 6–7 sifte (6 siffte), 4– sift (7 siff); 1 syftan, 4–6 syfte, 5 cyftyn, 6 cyfte; 1 seftan, 5, 7 seft; also pa. pple. 5 syfte, 6 sefte.
[OE. siftan, syftan, = MDu. siften, suften (Du. ziften), MLG. siften; also MDu. and MLG. (and hence G.) sichten, Du. and WFlem. zichten. The stem is that of sieve n.]
1. trans. To pass (something) through a sieve, in order to separate the coarse from the fine particles, or to strain.
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. C 873 Crebrat, siftið. c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. xxxiv. §11 Swa swa mon meolo seft [v.r. sift]; ðæt meolo ðurᵹcrypð ælc ðyrel. c 1000 ælfric Gram. (Z.) 137 Cribro, ic syfte. c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. T. 388 Al this mullok in a sive y-throwe, And sifted, and y-piked many a throwe. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxvii. (Tollem. MS.), Mele is grounde at mylle, and sefted with a seue. c 1415 Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) p. xcvi, A dyssh full of aysshes fayre syfte. c 1430 Two Cookery Bks. 38 Þan bray hem smal y-now; & þerow a crees bunte syfte hem. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 77/1 Cyftyn, cribro. 1530 Palsgr. 718/2, I wyll nat syft my meale thorowe this syve, it is to course. 1555 Eden Decades iv. (Arb.) 82 The myners..in dyuers places syfted the same on the drye lande. 1603 in Gage Hist. & Antiq. Hengrave (1822) 23 Item, one fier sholve made like a grate to seft the seacole w{supt}{suph}. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 85 They sweep a place very clean to sift the lime in, and when it is sifted they make it up in a heap. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 69 ¶11 Two of the Fair Sex, who are usually employed in sifting Cinders. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 171 Pound and sift three quarters of a pound of loaf sugar. 1832 G. R. Porter Porcelain & Glass 303 The same powdered whiting..may be used again..upon being ground and sifted. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. viii, A country contract which was to be sifted before carted. |
b. In fig. or transf. uses.
| 1535 Coverdale Amos ix. 9 Though I siffte y⊇ house of Israel amonge all nacions. 1589 ? Lyly Pappe w. Hatchet L.'s Wks. 1902 III. 408 They haue sifted the holie Bible, and left vs nothing as they say, but branne. 1611 Bible Isaiah xxx. 28 To sift the nations with the sieue of vanitie. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. iv. 8 The things of God..lose their value and force, when they are sifted through so many hands. 1822 W. Tennant Thane of Fife i. lxxv, When the North [wind] should burst his bleak confines, And in his icy boulter sift the snow. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (1879) I. iv. 129 The solar light is sifted by the landscape. |
2. fig. a. To make trial of (a person).
In early quots. after Luke xxii. 31.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 15523 He wil þe sift nu if he mai, as man dos corn or bran. 1535 Coverdale Luke xxii. 31 Satan hath desyred after you, that he might siffte you euen as wheate. c 1590 Marlowe Faustus xiii, Sathan begins to sift me with his pride. 1624 T. Scott Vox Dei 76 Is it not a great and dangerous temptation, (o all yee that know what temptation is, what it is to be siffed, what it is to resist) that young men meet in the world? 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. xv. 315 For these reasons Lady Elizabeth was closely kept and narrowly sifted all her Sisters reigne. 1718 Free-thinker No. 74. 140 The more..the Sincere Man..is sifted, the more he is intrusted. |
b. To subject (one) to close questioning.
| a 1566 R. Edwards Damon & Pithias (E.E.D.S.) 47 The knave beginneth to sift me. 1588 Greene Pandosto (1843) 37 He therefore began to sifte her more narrowly on this manner. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 30 Being curiously sifted by the guard at the City-gate, and being asked many questions. 1694 Gibson in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 235 For fear it should be some you have employ'd, I have got one to sift him. 1726 Swift Gulliver ii. vi, He multiplied his Questions, and sifted me thoroughly upon every Part of this Head. 1756 H. Walpole Let. to Mann 16 May, I sifted Dr. Pringle himself, but he would not give me a positive answer. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xvii, You must speak with this wench,..you must sift her a wee bit. 1861 Reade Cloister & H. lv, Blind Hans's boy..was sifted narrowly by my master, and stammered and faltered. |
3. fig. To examine closely into, to scrutinize narrowly, so as to find out the truth.
| 1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 11 Thes men..whos opinions I have desirid to be thurrouly siftid. 1592 Timme Ten Eng. Lepers L 4, Let no man take upon him to scan and sift Gods workes. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. viii. (1686) 23 We may explore and sift their verities. 1735 Berkeley Free-think. in Mathemat. §15 Others who are not afraid to sift the principles of human science. 1774 J. Bryant Mythol. II. 189, I have endeavoured with great pains to sift the history to the bottom. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xxxiv, We will sift this matter to the uttermost. 1849 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. xxi. (1866) 350 It is..very hard to sift a slander. 1884 L. J. Jennings Croker Papers I. i. 14 The art with which he sifted the evidence of the witnesses. |
b. Similarly with out.
| 1577 Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619) 85 When as Tatianus promised to sift out the darke speeches and hidden mysteries of Holy Scripture. 1594 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 578 This word..ought to teach us not to sift out the life of our soveraigne prince. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. vii. 272 If the cause be difficult, his diligence is the greater to sift it out. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Amb. 70 They were lodg'd in my house for some dayes, which I spent in sifting out their humour and manner of life. 1737 Whiston Josephus, Hist. ii. ii. §2 He tried to sift out the accounts of the money. 1827 Pollok Course T. 1, Severely sifting out The whole idea. |
† c. To search; to try. Obs.
| 1611 Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girl D.'s Wks. 1874 IV. 148, I will sift all the tauernes ith citty,..Ile find her out. 1627 E. F. Hist. Edw. II (1680) 18 They sift each way might break this fond inchantment. |
4. To separate, to take or get out, by the use of a sieve. Also transf. and in fig. contexts.
| 1428 Eng. Misc. (Surtees) 6 He syfted oute of yt half a bushell of plaster and lyme. 1502 Arnolde Chron. (1811) 87 The marchauntis straungers nowe use..to sarse, syfte & trye out the best greyne. 1554–9 Songs & Ball., Phil. & Mary (Roxb.) 4 And eke the fyne flowr from the bran nerly syfft. 1602 Narcissus (1893) App. i. 7, I have sifted out..the flower of my fancye. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows i. §15. 21 Yet can the Lord..as a few precious jewels in..a great heap of rubbish sift them out. 1758 Reid tr. Macquer's Chym. I. 262 Having sifted out and thrown away all the finest particles. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. i. v. 39 That it will be got sifted, like wheat out of chaff, from the Twenty-seven Million British subjects. 1872 W. K. Clifford Lect. (1879) I. 176 The lightest gas comes out quickest, and is as it were sifted from the other. |
| refl. 1874 L. Stephen Hours Libr. (1892) I. iii. 109 In Pope..the grain has sifted itself from the chaff. |
b. fig. To find out, get to know, by a process of elimination or close inquiry.
| 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. 87 When by interrogation we sift out any thing. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxii. 195 To labour in sifting out a Philosophicall truth. 1726 Adv. Capt. R. Boyle (1768) 240, I endeavour'd to sift the Secret from him. 1805 G. Ellis Let. in Lockhart Scott (1837) II. ii. 75, I should think Ritson himself..would be puzzled to sift out a single additional anecdote of the poet's life. 1833 T. Hook Parson's Dau. ii. vii, Then, perhaps, you may sift out some farther particulars. 1851 Helps Comp. Solit. x. (1874) 170 It will be investigated, and what is true in it be sifted out. |
5. To clear or clean from impurities, etc., by means of a sieve; also fig., to clean (one) out of money.
| 1591 Greene Conny Catch. ii. Wks. (Grosart) X. 95 He..little suspected that his Countreyman the Setter had sifted him out of his money. c 1632 Drummond of Hawthornden Elegy Gustavus Adolphus, You are at best but honourable Earth;..how e're sifted from that courser Bran Which doth compound, and knead the common Man. 1660 Sharrock Vegetables 17 Sift it from stones and rubbish. |
6. a. To cover over, by letting something fall through a sieve.
| 1563 T. Hill Arte Garden. (1593) 14 The which allies and walkes you shall sift ouer with the finest sand. |
b. To let fall through, scatter from or by means of, a sieve. Also fig.
| 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 204 If this [soil] be too stiff, sift a little Lime discreetly with it. 1674 J. Flavel Husb. Spiritualized (ed. 2) 264 The finest and richest mould must be sifted about the roots. 1747–96 H. Glasse Cookery xx. 316 You must sift some fine sugar upon your cake when it goes into the oven. 1772 T. Simpson Vermin-Killer 26 Cover it lightly over with earth,..sift it over the trap. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 85 Along the floor some sand I'll sift. 1855 Delamer Kitchen Garden (1861) 37 After sowing,..sift over the top a thin layer of cinder-ashes or lime-rubbish. 1869 B. Harte Luck Roaring Camp 31 Again from leaden skies the snow-flakes were sifted over the land. |
7. intr. To use a sieve; to do sifting. Chiefly fig., esp. to pry into, make inquiry.
| 1535 Coverdale Amos ix. 9 Like as they vse to sifte in a syue. 1590 Greene Never too Late Wks. (Grosart) VIII. 153, I hope this proffer is but a tryall..to sift at my secret intent. a 1625 Fletcher Noble Gent. v. iii, Although he puts his nobles in disguise..to sift into my words. 1641 Milton Animadv. Wks. 1851 III. 205 You sifted not so clean before, but you shuffle as foulely now. 1699 Bentley Phal. 287, I will not sift into them too minutely. 1779 F. Burney Let. Dec., He has desired me to sift for what room you have, and to sound as to convenience. 1874 Slang Dict. 290 Sift, to embezzle small coins, those which might pass through a sieve—as threepennies and fourpennies—and which are, therefore, not likely to be missed. |
8. To pass or fall as through a sieve.
| 1599 A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 2/2 Madefye it with Rosewater least that it fal on a heap and sift throughe. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. ii. 137 He it was who sent the snow⁓flakes Sifting, hissing through the forest. 1867 A. J. Wilson Vashti xxxiv, Golden leaves were sifting down on the marble floor. 1893 Scribner's Mag. Sept. 305/1 The April sunshine sifts in through an open window. |
Hence ˈsiftage, sifted matter. rare—1.
| 1881 Blackmore Christowell vii, At this he worked hard,..pulling asunder the fibrous clods, but not reducing them to siftage. |