Sieve
WordNet
noun
(1) A strainer for separating lumps from powdered material or grading particles
verb
(2) Distinguish and separate out
"Sift through the job candidates"
(3) Separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device to separate out coarser elements
"Sift the flour"
(4) Check and sort carefully
"Sift the information"
(5) Examine in order to test suitability
"Screen these samples"
"Screen the job applicants"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From Old English sife, Common Germanic *sibi, akin to German Sieb, Dutch zeef.
Noun
- A device to separate larger objects from smaller objects, or to separate solid objects from a liquid.
- Use the sieve to get the water from the pasta.
- 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.
- Given a list of consecutive numbers starting at 1, the Sieve of Eratosthenes algorithm will find all of the prime numbers.