Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Language: Old English
Origin: siftan

sift

 verb
     
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sift [transitive]
1DFC to put flour, sugar etc through a sieve or similar container in order to remove large pieces
2 also sift through to examine information, documents etc carefully in order to find something out or decide what is important and what is not:
Police are sifting through the evidence.

sift something ↔ out

phrasal verb
to separate something from other things
sift something ↔ out from
It's hard to sift out the truth from the lies in this case.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
 
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