▪ I. sieve, n.
(sɪv)
Forms: α. 1 sibi, 1–2 sife, 1–2, 5–6 syfe (syfa), 4 syfue, 4, 6 syffe, 5 syff, 6–7 siff; 4 seyf, 5 seyfe, sefe, 6 seiffe. β. 4–7 sive (siue), 6 cive; 4–6 syve (syue), cyve (cyue), 6 scyve. γ. 4–6 seve (seue, 5 sewe, ceve), 6 seeue, ceeue, 7 seeve, 6–7 seave. δ. 7 seive, scieve, 6– sieve.
[OE. sife, = MDu. seve (Du. zeef), MLG. seve (LG. seve, sefe, etc.), OHG. sib, sip (G. sieb, also dial. sib, sip, siff, etc.). The stem, which may be ultimately related to that of sye, to strain, is the base of sift v.]
1. a. A utensil consisting of a circular frame with a finely meshed or perforated bottom, used to separate the coarser from the finer particles of any loose material, or as a strainer for liquids.
In agricultural and similar work a sieve is usually distinguished from a riddle by having finer meshes.
| α c 725 Corpus Gloss. C 873 Crebrum, sibi. 9.. Ags. Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 215 Crebrum, cribellum, sife. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 94 Asift þurh sife, meng wiþ huniᵹe. 1396–7 Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 214, 1 syffe. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 20 Take Appelys an sethe hem, an Serge hem þorwe a Sefe in-to a potte. 1483 Cath. Angl. 339/1 A Syfe, crybrum. 1508 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. IV. 110 For ane siff to sift gunpowdir, ij s. 1530 Palsgr. 270/1 Syfe to cyfte corne in, crible. 1595 Duncan App. Etym. (E.D.S.), Excerniculum, a sife or boulteclaith. |
| β c 1320 Sir Tristr. 1946 A siue he fond tite, And bond vnder his fete. c 1340 Nominale (Skeat) 529 Fan, berelep, and syue. 1382 Wyclif Eccl. xxvii. 5 As in the smyting of a cyue shal abide stille pouder. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 78/2 Cyve for corne clansynge, cribrum, cribellum. Cyve, for mele, furfuraculum. 1530 Palsgr. 205 Cyve to syfte with, crible. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 184 You must strain the waxe through a siue, or such like thing. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. xxi. 136 Here they had great plenty of rain, poured (not as in other places, as it were out of sives, but) as out of spouts. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 95 The dust..sticks to the faces of those that handle the Sive. |
| γ c 1340 Nominale (Skeat) 138 W[oman] weruth seue and riddell. 1357–8 Ely Sacr. Rolls II. 181 In ij seves et j redel emptis. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 219 Boile it longe in watir, & þanne cole it þoruȝ a seue. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 32 Take a seve or a whete-rydoun. 1577 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees, 1835) 422 Five ryddells and seaves to wynnowe corne, x{supd}. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. ii. 33 If you would keep your rose cakes without worms, you must..set them in ceeues. c 1620 Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 136 Our memory is like a seave. 1683 Pettus Fleta Min. i. 19 Take Ashes burnt from any light Wood..and put them into a Seeve. |
| δ a 1591 H. Smith Serm. (1592) 665 Like sieues which hold water no longer than they are in the Riuer. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 251 Sieves..to sift the Lime and Sand withal. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 197 When it boils strain it through a fine sieve. 1846 Greener Sci. Gunnery 30 The discs..striking against the sides of the sieves, force it through the apertures. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. iv. 113 The upper part of the cone was perforated like a sieve. |
b. In phrases denoting something that cannot be done, or that is waste of labour.
| 1390 Gower Conf. I. 294 For as a Sive kepeth Ale, Riht so can Cheste kepe a tale. 1477 Norton Ord. Alch. i. in Ashm. (1652) 17 As he that fetcheth Water in a Sive. 1515 Barclay Egloges i. (1570) A vj/1 Such thinges..To thee be as sure as water in a siue. 1589 Greene Menaphon (Arb.) 48 Suppose she were a Vestall,..shee might carrie water with Amulia in a siue. 1616 Hieron Wks. I. 586 That which is said in the prouerb, where one doth milke a goate, another holds vnder a siue. 1686 A. Horneck Crucif. Jesus xxii. 741 That's no better, than taking up water in a sieve, which runs out as fast as it is put in. 1813 Picken Poems II. 135 That wad been milkin' his cow in a sieve. |
c. fig. Of things.
| c 1611 Chapman Iliad v. 511 Then stirring th' idle siue of newe, did all their forces aske. 1643 Caryl Sacr. Cov. 4 The Articles passe them through a finer Sieve. 1647 May Hist. Parl. i. vii. 73 Those inventions were but sives, made of purpose to winnow the best men. 1889 Gretton Memory's Harkback 218 All that, as they thought, was past and gone with their ordination..; they had passed through the Bishop's sieve. 1896 Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 927 The infection was, so to speak, caught on the sieve—that is to say, the infected ships gave rise to cases of plague within the quarantine station. |
d. fig. Of persons;
esp. one who cannot keep a secret.
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well i. iii. 208 Yet in this captious, and intenible Siue I still poure in the waters of my loue. 1646 Quarles Sheph. Oracles vi, Here's none but wee, I am no Sive? I prithee, Swain, be free. 1668 Dryden Even. Love i. i, As you are a waiting-woman; as you are the sieve of all your lady's secrets, tell it me. 1704 Swift T. Tub vii, Those judicious Collectors.., by some called the Sieves and Boulters of Learning. 1811 Byron Hints fr. Hor. 734 note, The sieve of a patron let it out. |
2. a. As used by witches for sailing in.
| a 1585 Montgomerie Flyting 461 Nicneuen..to teach it gart take it To saill sure in a seiffe, but compass or cart. 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. iii. 8 But in a Syue Ile thither sayle. a 1613 Overbury A Wife, etc. (1638) 158 Like a witch in a scive. 1820 Keats Eve St. Agnes xiv, Thou must hold water in a witch's sieve. 1830 Scott Demonol. ix. 312 Another frolic they had, when, like the weird sisters in Macbeth, they embarked in sieves. |
b. As used for purposes of divination. Commonly
sieve and shears.
Cf. riddle n.2 1 b.
| 1596 Lodge Wits Miserie 18 If he loose any thing, he hath readie a siue and a key. 1602 in Goudie Diary J. Mill 185 To quite hir selff..for the turning of ane siff and riddill for ane pair scheiris. a 1635 Randolph Jealous Lovers i. x, A man cannot find out their Meaning without the ‘Sieve and Sheers’. 1692 E. Walker tr. Epictetus' Mor. xxxviii, Questions which by Sieve and Sheers are try'd. 1843 Lytton Last Bar. i. v, Thinkest thou..I can read thee all riddles without my sieve and my shears? |
3. Used as a measure, or for holding anything. Also, a kind of basket used chiefly for market produce.
| a 1440 Found. St. Bartholomew's (E.E.T.S.) 26 Sche answerd that she hadde but oonly .vii. Ceves ful of malte. 1464 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 272 Payd for di. a tymbre and iij. scyvys of letuse, iiij. s. 1556 Richmond Wills (Surtees) 92 Item xx mettes of barle sawne oppon the ground... Item xxvj seves of ottes sowin. 1636 Davenant Wits i. i, Apple-Wives That wrangle for a Sieve. 1793 Steevens Notes Shaks. Tr. & Cr. ii. ii, Sieves and half-sieves are baskets to be met with in every quarter of Covent-garden market. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 587 In other parts the early gatherings are..sent to the markets in half-bushel sieves. 1887 Parish & Shaw Kentish Gloss. 149 In West Kent, sieve and half-sieve are equivalent to bushel and half-bushel. |
4. In calico-printing: (see
quots.).
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 215 The colouring matter..is spread..upon fine woollen cloth, stretched in a frame over the wax cloth head of a wooden drum or sieve. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 197/2 The mordant..is applied to the block by pressing the latter upon what is termed a ‘sieve’ (a box covered with woollen cloth). |
5. Math. a. In full
sieve of Eratosthenes [
tr. Gr. κόσκινον Ἐρατοσθένους,
f. the name of the Greek scientific writer of the 3rd c. b.c. who devised it]. A method of finding the prime numbers in a (
usu. consecutive) list of numbers by deleting in turn all the multiples of all possible prime factors.
| 1803 tr. Bossut's Gen. Hist. Math. 18 The famous sieve of Eratosthenes..affords an easy and commodious method of finding prime numbers. 1857 Proc. Ashmolean Soc. III. 128 To Eratosthenes of Alexandria..is attributed the invention of the method by which the primes may successively be determined in order of magnitude. It is termed..‘the sieve of Eratosthenes’. 1945 E. T. Bell Development of Math. (ed. 2) iv. 89 Boethius reproduced the sieve of Eratosthenes and offered some amusing trifles on figurate numbers. 1966 Ogilvy & Anderson Excurs. Number Theory viii. 97 There is no known formula that turns out the prime numbers. Essentially the only way to find them is by the use of the ‘sieve’ devised by Eratosthenes. |
b. A method of estimating or finding upper and lower limits for the number of primes, or of numbers not having factors within a stated set, that fall within a stated interval.
| 1897 Nature 6 May 10/2 (heading) Sieve for primes. 1952 Proc. Internat. Congr. Mathematicians I. 286 Ever since Viggo Brun introduced his ingenious sieve-method, it has been a very important tool in connection with problems in the theory of primes. 1972 M. N. Huxley (title) The distribution of prime numbers: large sieves and zero-density theorems. |
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
sieve-basket,
sieve-bottom,
sieve-cloth,
sieve-drum,
sieve-fashion,
sieve-frame;
sieve-witted adj.| 1598 Chapman Seven Bks. Iliad Ded. A 4 b, Our siue-witted censors, through whose braines all thinges exact and refinde, run to the earth in heapes. 1609 N. F. Fruiterers Secrets 4 They poure them out gently into their siues, or broad baskets made siue-fashion. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 215 The inverted sieve drum should fit the paste tub pretty closely. Ibid. 216 The printer seizes the block..and daubs it twice..upon the sieve cloth. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 332 The sieve-frame..is 28 inches in length and 5 inches in depth. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Sieve-bottoms, attachments for the frame of a sieve made of horse⁓hair or wire, etc. 1893 K. A. Sanborn S. California 140 They..placed acorns in a sieve basket. |
7. a. Special combs.:
† sieve-alphabet (see
quot.);
sieve analysis, a particle-size analysis of a powdered or granular material made by passing it through sieves of increasing fineness;
† sieve-bone (see
quot.);
sieve lackey, a species of moth;
sieve map, a map upon which the distribution of a number of features is depicted by means of transparent overlays;
† sieve prophet (see 2 b);
sieve-raggings (see
ragging vbl. n.3 2);
† sieve-stone, a species of tufa.
| 1663 Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv. Index p. iv, A *Sieve-alphabet [§34 To write..by holes in the bottom of a Sieve]. |
| 1928 C. C. Wiley Princ. Highway Engin. ii. 25 Gravel should be well graded from fine to coarse. This is determined by a *sieve analysis. The sieve analysis curve for a high-grade gravel should approximate a straight line. 1971 R. Hardbottle tr. Grassmann's Physical Princ. Chem. Engin. v. 302 Sieve analysis, in which the grains are passed in succession through sieves of various finenesses, gives directly a cumulative curve, in which..the masses or weights of the different fractions are given. |
| 1594 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 123 A little bone in the top of the nose, which is pierced through like to a litle siue. Hereupon it is called by the Phisicions the *siue-bone. |
| 1832 J. Rennie Butterfl. & Moths 46 The *Sieve Lackey (Eulepia Cribrum) appears in June. |
| [1938 E. G. R. Taylor in Geogr. Jrnl. XCII. 25 The last map..is constructed on what I have termed the sieve method.] 1952 Monkhouse & Wilkinson Maps & Diagrams iv. 190 E. G. R. Taylor produced a map upon which all areas in Great Britain unsuitable for industrial location were indicated in solid black. These areas were determined by superimposing isopleths representing certain specific factors... This process was termed ‘sieving out’ and the resultant maps are sometimes referred to as ‘*sieve-maps’. 1965 Listener 27 May 774/2 When to these were added those areas of real natural beauty within the conurbation..and areas of the highest agricultural value..the result (which we called the regional sieve map) was an exceedingly complex jig-saw puzzle. |
| 1638 Mayne Lucian (1664) 131 If but a *Sive-prophet appear among them,..they presently flock together, and gape at him. |
| 1681 Grew Musæum iii. i. v. 305 The *Seive-Stone. Lapis Cribriformis. |
b. In botanical terms having reference to sieve-like openings in the walls or ends of plant-cells, as
sieve-cell,
disk,
-pore,
-tissue,
-tube,
-vessel; also
sieve-plate 1.
| 1875 Bennett & Dyer tr. Sachs' Bot. 23 The Sieve-structure which occurs in the sieve-cells of the fibro-vascular bundles of vascular plants. Ibid. 24 The opening of the sieve-pores has not yet begun. Ibid. 101 The latticed cells or sieve-tubes frequently have sieve- or latticed discs in their longitudinal walls. 1887 Bentley Man. Bot. (ed. 5) 55 What are commonly known as sieve-tubes or sieve-vessels. |
▪ II. sieve obs. form of
seave, a rush.
▪ III. sieve, v. (
sɪv)
Also 5
cyue, 6
sy(e)ue,
syve.
[f. sieve n. Cf. MDu. and MLG. seven, zeven (LG. seven, sefen, etc.), MHG. siben (G. sieben), siffen.] 1. trans. To pass through a sieve; to sift or strain.
| 1499 [see sieving vbl. n. below]. 1530 Palsgr. 719/2 You can never make so fyne floure whan you do but syve your meale, as you shall do whan you boulte it. 1552 Huloet, Bult, raunge, or syeue meale, succerno. 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. 442 Sieving milk through a syle. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm III. 909 A strong brine of salt and boiling-water..is made and sieved through a cloth. 1885 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 225/2 The fibres of wood..are then sieved according to fineness, collected, and pressed into pulp. |
b. To take
out by sifting. In
quots. fig.| 1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. cxxiii. III. 74 They will find no lack of reasons why they and their representatives should not be sieved out of parliament. 1885 Eng. Mech. 235 The blue or short wave-lengths of the spectrum are sieved out first. |
2. a. To perforate with holes like a sieve.
| 1853 Whistle-Binkie Ser. ii. 29 Tak care o' your breeks that they dinna get sieved. |
b. To bore in the manner of a sieve.
| 1875 Lanier Symphony 32 We sieve mine-meshes under the hills. |
3. intr. To pass as through a sieve.
| 1863 H. Melville Moby Dick cxxv, Oh God! that man should be a thing for immortal souls to sieve through! |
Hence
ˈsieving vbl. n.| 1499 Promp. Parv. (Pynson), Cyuynge or clensinge, colatura. 1592 Nashe P. Penilesse (ed. 2) 8 Greediness..busies himselfe..in syuing of Muckhills and shop dust, whereof he will boult a whole cartload to gaine a bowd Pinne. 1824 Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1853 I. 79/1 After this sieving, after this pounding and trituration of the coarser particles [etc.]. |