sifting

sifting
    n 1: the act of separating grain from chaff; "the winnowing was
         done by women" [syn: {winnow}, {winnowing}, {sifting}]
    

Sift \Sift\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Sifted}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Sifting}.] [AS. siftan, from sife sieve. [root]151a. See
   {Sieve}.]
   1. To separate with a sieve, as the fine part of a substance
      from the coarse; as, to sift meal or flour; to sift
      powder; to sift sand or lime.
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   2. To separate or part as if with a sieve.
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            When yellow sands are sifted from below,
            The glittering billows give a golden show. --Dryden.
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   3. To examine critically or minutely; to scrutinize.
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            Sifting the very utmost sentence and syllable.
                                                  --Hooker.
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            Opportunity I here have had
            To try thee, sift thee.               --Milton.
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            Let him but narrowly sift his ideas.  --I. Taylor.
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   {To sift out}, to search out with care, as if by sifting.
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64 Moby Thesaurus words for "sifting":
      amassing evidence, appraisal, assessment, assortment, bolting,
      categorization, clarification, classification, close inquiry,
      colature, culling, department of investigation,
      destructive distillation, detection, detective work, distillation,
      edulcoration, elution, elutriation, essentialization, evaluation,
      exhaustive study, extraction, factoring, filtering, filtration,
      gauging, gradation, grouping, hearing, identification, indagation,
      investigation, investigative bureau, leaching,
      legislative investigation, legwork, lixiviation, percolation,
      perscrutation, placement, probe, purification, ranking, refinement,
      research, riddling, screening, selection, separation, sieving,
      sifting out, sleuthing, sorting, sorting out, spiritualization,
      straining, sublimation, subordination, taxonomy, triage, weighing,
      winnowing, witch-hunt