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''winnow'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''winnow'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125204041-00-⌔

winnow - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

winnow (third-person singular simple present winnows, present participle winnowing, simple past and past participle winnowed)

  • (transitive, agriculture, literal) To subject (granular material, especially food grain) to a current of air separating heavier and lighter components, as grain from chaff.
    • ✤ Synonym: wind
    • ✤ By Jacob Behel, of Mifflintown, Pa.,—Improvement in winnowing Machines, Patented August 21, 1847.1
    • ✤ [W]ind began to winnow the river delta’s dried sediments.2
  • (transitive, figuratively) To separate, sift, analyse, or test by separating items having different values.
    • ✤ Synonym: comb out
    • ✤ They winnowed the field to twelve.
    • ✤ They winnowed the winners from the losers.
    • ✤ They winnowed the losers from the winners.
  • (transitive, literary) To blow upon or toss about by blowing; to set in motion as with a fan or wings.
    • ✤ The light snow lay on the narrow and winding path before them, pure as if just fresh winnowed by the wind.3
    • ✤ Gulls average much larger than terns, with stouter build; the feet are larger and more ambulatorial, the wings are shorter and not so thin; the birds winnow the air in a steady course unlike the buoyant dashing flight of their relatives.4
  • (intransitive, literary, dated) To move about with a flapping motion, as of wings; to flutter.

Noun

winnow (plural winnows)

  • That which winnows or which is used in winnowing; a contrivance for fanning or winnowing grain.
  • The act of winnowing

Etymology

From Middle English wyndwen, from Old English windwian (“to winnow, fan, ventilate”), from Proto-West Germanic ﹡windwōn, from Proto-Germanic ﹡windwōną, ﹡winþijaną (“to throw about, winnow”), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡wē- (“to winnow, thresh”). Cognate with West Frisian wynje (“to winnow”), dialectal Dutch winden, winnen (“to winnow”), Middle High German winden (“to winnow”), Icelandic vinsa (“to pick out, weed”), Latin vannus (“a winnowing basket”). See fan, van.

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA: /ˈwɪnoʊ/
  • (UK) IPA: /ˈwɪnəʊ/
  • Rhymes: -ɪnəʊ
  • Audio (US): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1847, editorial staff, “Winnowing Machines”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 68: ↩

  2. 1998 January 3, Sid Perkins, “Thin Skin”, in Science News, volume 165, number 1, page 11: ↩

  3. 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 206: ↩

  4. 1872, Elliott Coues, Key to North American Birds: ↩

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Secondary

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