sift
verb /sɪft/
/sɪft/
Verb Forms
Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they sift | /sɪft/ /sɪft/ |
| he / she / it sifts | /sɪfts/ /sɪfts/ |
| past simple sifted | /ˈsɪftɪd/ /ˈsɪftɪd/ |
| past participle sifted | /ˈsɪftɪd/ /ˈsɪftɪd/ |
| -ing form sifting | /ˈsɪftɪŋ/ /ˈsɪftɪŋ/ |
- [transitive] sift something to put flour or some other fine substance through a sieve / sifter
- Sift the flour into a bowl.
Extra Examples- Sift the flour finely before adding it to the mixture.
- You will need 100g self-raising flour, sifted.
- [transitive, intransitive] to examine something very carefully in order to decide what is important or useful or to find something important
- sift something We will sift every scrap of evidence.
- Computers are being used to sift the information.
- sift through something Crash investigators have been sifting through the wreckage of the aircraft.
Extra Examples- He's mentally sifting for truths.
- I spent hours sifting through those heavy art books.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- carefully
- out
- for
- through
- spend hours sifting through something
- spend time sifting through something
- [transitive] sift something (out) from something to separate something from a group of things
- He sifted the relevant data from the rest.
- She looked quickly through the papers, sifting out from the pile anything that looked interesting.
Word OriginOld English siftan, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch ziften, also to sieve.