sifted; sifting; sifts
1
a
: to put through a sieve
sift flour
b
: to separate or separate out by or as if by putting through a sieve
2
: to go through especially to sort out what is useful or valuable
sifted the evidence
—often used with throughsift through a pile of old letters
3
: to scatter by or as if by sifting
sift sugar on a cake
sifter
noun
Examples of sift in a Sentence
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.
Sift the lumps from the sugar.
The police sifted the evidence in hopes of finding a clue.
The police sifted for clues.
The lawyer sifted through the hundreds of pages of testimony.
Firefighters sifted through the debris.
Recent Examples on the Web
Nine people remain missing as authorities sift through the wreckage of Tuesday's crash in an attempt to piece together what went wrong.
—
Matt Lavietes, NBC news, 6 Nov. 2025
The actions of delivery truck drivers, warehouse laborers and many others can be tracked and sifted, too.
—Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Nov. 2025
But no one wants to be caught sifting through lawsuits or whispering about a castmate’s questionable business practices.
—Judy Berman, Time, 5 Nov. 2025
To overcome the challenge, the scientists used state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms to sift through massive amounts of data, separating the elusive tWZ signal from background noise.
—Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 4 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sift
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Matt Lavietes, NBC news, 6 Nov. 2025
The actions of delivery truck drivers, warehouse laborers and many others can be tracked and sifted, too.
—Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Nov. 2025
But no one wants to be caught sifting through lawsuits or whispering about a castmate’s questionable business practices.
—Judy Berman, Time, 5 Nov. 2025
To overcome the challenge, the scientists used state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms to sift through massive amounts of data, separating the elusive tWZ signal from background noise.
—Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 4 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for sift
Cite this Entry
“Sift.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sift. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
sift
verb1
a
: to put through a sieve
sift flour
b
: to separate or separate out by or as if by putting through a sieve
2
: to go through especially to sort out what is useful or valuable
sift evidence
sift through a pile of papers
sifter
noun
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