sift
Americanverb (used with object)
-
sifts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sifted,
past participle, past
-
sifting
present participle
-
to separate and retain the coarse parts of (flour, ashes, etc.) with a sieve.
-
to scatter or sprinkle through or by means of a sieve.
to sift sugar onto cake.
-
to separate by or as if by a sieve.
-
to examine closely.
The detectives are still sifting the evidence.
- Synonyms:
- probe, search, inspect, scrutinize, sort
-
to question closely.
verb (used without object)
-
sifts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sifted,
past participle, past
-
sifting
present participle
-
to sift something.
-
to pass or fall through or as if through a sieve.
verb
-
(tr) to sieve (sand, flour, etc) in order to remove the coarser particles
-
to scatter (something) over a surface through a sieve
-
(tr) to separate with or as if with a sieve; distinguish between
-
(tr) to examine minutely
to sift evidence
-
(intr) to move as if through a sieve
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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sifternoun
-
outsiftverb (used with object)
-
presiftverb (used with object)
-
resiftverb (used with object)
-
unsiftedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
siftsimple
-
siftssimple
-
have siftedperfect
-
has siftedperfect
-
am siftingprogressive
-
are siftingprogressive
-
is siftingprogressive
-
have been siftingperfect progressive
-
has been siftingperfect progressive
Past
-
siftedsimple
-
had siftedperfect
-
was siftingprogressive
-
were siftingprogressive
-
had been siftingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sift
before 900; Middle English siften, Old English siftan; cognate with Dutch, Middle Low German siften; akin to sieve
Explanation
To bake a cake, you sift the flour to get out the lumps. When you sift, you separate out one thing from another. When you sort through the mail looking for the bills or go through your photos to find that shot of your dog, that’s sifting, too. Detectives sift through piles of evidence when investigating crimes, and you might sift through the hundred applications you get from drummers eager to join your band, to find Ms. Right. When you're at the beach, you can sift sand through your fingers, and you might see big machines that sift the sand to clean it.
Vocabulary lists containing sift
Stairway To Leaven: Baking Vocabulary
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Holes
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Ender's Game
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That’s a lovely way to describe it, and “Clayface” does have decent ideas for those game to sift through the muck.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
It led his team to sift colonial-era archives and convince families to share fragile letters revealing ugly histories.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Rescue teams and family members continue to sift through the rubble in La Guaira, searching for victims and loved ones.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
With record youth unemployment and vacancies half what they were in recent years employers are increasingly turning to AI to sift through the huge volume of applications and favouring online interviews over in person.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Lithuanians wandered in shock through the rubble of their homes, finding the rumors hard to sift through.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
So Swalwell and his congressional chief of staff launched an AI technology company that sifts and analyzes campaign fundraising data.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2026
He sifts through long-forgotten memoirs, archives and personal papers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
AI sifts through tens of millions of records of data for marketers, who then create AI agents that carry out complex marketing tasks.
From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 2026
In an office in central London, Signify's small team quietly sifts through thousands of posts.
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2025
He swilled the contents of the Pensieve as Harry had seen him swill them before, much as a gold prospector sifts for gold.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Agents sifted through hundreds of thousands of records seized during Kao’s arrest and found that many were consistent with his account of widespread influence peddling.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
However when the team sifted through their data, they found that at certain wavelengths, the object's light simply disappeared.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
In an abandoned luxury apartment in the Syrian capital Damascus, armed men dressed in military fatigues sifted through designer clothes and documents.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
A Los Angeles Fire Department crew sifted through rubble on the property and found a wedding ring, along with other precious belongings, authorities said in a news release.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
Sasha sifted through them, and after trying on a few skirts in the bathroom, chose three to take home.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
Employers use them to save time sifting through applications, but there are growing concerns that these tools could be biased.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
Instead, it was a layered cake made from whipping butter and sugar until it was frothy and then sifting in the dry ingredients.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
The Emmy Awards have become a streamlined affair in recent years, as voters, sifting through a fragmented TV landscape, inevitably land on a small set of favorite programs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
And while humans control most of it, bots are faster at gobbling it up and sifting through it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
I lay on my stomach, sifting through the green pieces, pulling out all the onesies and flats.
From "The Season of Styx Malone" by Kekla Magoon
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
