/sɪft; sɪft/
v
1 (a) [Tn] put (sth) through a sieve 筛（某物）
*sift the flour, sugar, etc 筛面粉、糖等.
(b) [Tn.pr, Tn.p] ~ sth (out) from sth; ~ sth out separate sth from sth by putting it through a sieve 筛分（某物）
*sift (out) the lumps from the flour, the wheat from the chaff 把面粉中的面块筛出来、把小麦的壳筛掉.
2 [Tn, Tn.pr] shake or sprinkle (sth) through a sieve 筛下（某物）
*sift flour (into the mixture) 把面粉筛进混合物里
* sift sugar onto a cake 把糖筛撒在糕饼上.
3 [Ipr, Tn] ~ (through) sth (fig 比喻) examine sth very carefully 详察, 细审（某事物）
*sift through the piles of correspondence 仔细检查成堆的信件
* sift the evidence, data, etc 认真审查证据、数据等.

v [T]
[Language: Old English;Origin: siftan]
to put flour, sugar etc through a sieve or similar container in order to remove large pieces
alsosift through
to examine information, documents etc carefully in order to find something out or decide what is important and what is not
　Police are sifting through the evidence in the hope of finding more clues.
sift out [sift sth⇔out] phr v
to separate something from other things
sift something⇔out from
　It's hard to sift out the truth from the lies in this case.