sift : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: sift	by the DICT Development Group
3 results for sift
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
sift v move as if through a sieve; "The soldiers sifted through the woods" separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device to separate out coarser elements; "sift the flour" Synonym(s): sift, sieve, strain check and sort carefully; "sift the information" Synonym(s): sieve, sift distinguish and separate out; "sift through the job candidates" Synonym(s): sieve, sift
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
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. 2. To separate or part as if with a sieve. When yellow sands are sifted from below, The glittering billows give a golden show. --Dryden. 3. To examine critically or minutely; to scrutinize. Sifting the very utmost sentence and syllable. --Hooker. Opportunity I here have had To try thee, sift thee. --Milton. Let him but narrowly sift his ideas. --I. Taylor. {To sift out}, to search out with care, as if by sifting.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]:
SIFT SHARE Internal Fortran Translator. Translation utility designed for converting Fortran II to Fortran IV. The word "sift" was often used as a verb to describe converting code from one language to another. Sammet 1969, p.153.