Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Language: Old English
Origin: windwian

winnow

 verb
     
Related topics: Agriculture, Crops
win‧now also winnow down
TA [transitive] to make a list, group, or quantity smaller by getting rid of the things that you do not need or want [= whittle down]:
We need to winnow the list of candidates to three.

winnow somebody/something ↔ out

phrasal verb
to get rid of the things or people that you do not need or want from a group
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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