noun. A utensil of wire mesh or closely perforated metal or plastic, used for straining, sifting, ricing, or puréeing.

intransitive verb. To pass through a sieve.

intransitive verb. To use a sieve; sift.

noun. An instrument for separating the finer from the coarser parts of disintegrated matter, by shaking it so as to force the former through meshes too small for the latter to pass. Sieves are made in many forms for a great variety of uses. See hair-siere, scarce, screen, bolting-cloth, etc.

noun. Something for other use shaped like or in some way resembling the common circular sieve.

noun. A wide sheepskin-covered hoop used in some localities for holding wool.

noun. In calico-printing, a cloth extending over a vat which contains the color.

noun. Figuratively, a thing which lacks closeness of texture, or a person who lacks closeness of disposition; especially, a very frank or free-spoken person; one who lets out all that he knows.

To cause the finer parts of to pass through or as if through a sieve; sift.

noun. A utensil for separating the finer and coarser parts of a pulverized or granulated substance from each other. It consist of a vessel, usually shallow, with the bottom perforated, or made of hair, wire, or the like, woven in meshes.

noun. A kind of coarse basket.

noun. cribriform cells. See under Cribriform.

noun. A device to separate larger objects from smaller objects, or to separate solid objects from a liquid.

noun. A process, physical or abstract, that arrives at a final result by filtering out unwanted pieces of input from a larger starting set of input.

verb. To strain, sift or sort using a sieve.

verb. examine in order to test suitability

noun. a strainer for separating lumps from powdered material or grading particles

verb. check and sort carefully

verb. separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device to separate out coarser elements

verb. distinguish and separate out

"A sieve is a mechanism, specifically, a device which selects or separates from among that which already exists."

drum-sieve  sieve and shears  sieve of eratosthenes  strainer  

have a memory like a sieve  have a mind like a sieve  

analyse  analyze  canvas  canvass  choose  

Viv  forgive  give  liv  live  

colander  pail  strainer  

analyze  analyzer  arabesque  assort  basketry  

sieved  sieves  sieving