sifting's Usage Examples:

The voters were to choose one-tenth of their number (notabilities of the commune); one-tenth of these would form the notabilities of the department; while by a similar decimal sifting, the notabilities of the nation were selected.

He worked, therefore, upon more assured ground; his sifting of authorities was more thorough and his method less restricted.

The arches bear on the convex outer side the delicate arborescent gills, and on the concave inner side develop a membranous septum with vermicular perforations, a special sifting or filtering contrivance through which the water absorbed by the mouth has to pass before reaching the respiratory organs of the branchial apparatus.

Like al-Bukhari (q.v.), of whom he was a close and faithful friend, he gave himself to the collecting, sifting and arranging of traditions, travelling for the purpose as far as Egypt.

The sifting out of these was proceeding steadily and gradually, and by the end of the century it may be regarded as complete.

It has only been possible here to indicate in the briefest way what is involved in the collection and critical sifting of the extant evidence for the text of the Old Testament, Results of how much of the work has been done and how much Criticism.

Already, in his eighteenth year, he had devoted himself to the collecting, sifting, testing and arranging of traditions.

In the mechanical analysis of the soil, after separation of the stones and fine gravel by means of sieves, the remainder of the finer earth is subjected to various processes of sifting and deposition from water with a view of determining the relative proportions of sand, silt and clay present in it.

The resulting " classification is based on the examination, mostly autoptic, of a far greater number of characters than any that had preceded it; moreover, they were chosen in a different way, discernment being exercised in sifting and weighing them, so as to determine, so far as possible, the relative value of each, according as that value may vary in different groups, and not to produce a mere mechanical ` key ' after the fashion become of late years so common " (Newton's Dictionary of Birds, Introduction, p. 103).

The building had been burnt to the ground, and the guardsman began the process of sifting through the ashes.

Synonyms:

winnow, winnowing, separation,

Antonyms:

connectedness, association, joint, union,