What does winnow mean?

Definitions for winnow
ˈwɪn oʊwin·now

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word winnow.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. winnow, winnowing, siftingverb

    the act of separating grain from chaff

    "the winnowing was done by women"

  2. winnow, fanverb

    separate the chaff from by using air currents

    "She stood there winnowing chaff all day in the field"

  3. winnowverb

    blow on

    "The wind was winnowing her hair"; "the wind winnowed the grass"

  4. cull out, winnowverb

    select desirable parts from a group or list

    "cull out the interesting letters from the poet's correspondence"; "winnow the finalists from the long list of applicants"

  5. winnowverb

    blow away or off with a current of air

    "winnow chaff"

Wiktionary

  1. winnownoun

    That which winnows or which is used in winnowing; a contrivance for fanning or winnowing grain.

  2. winnowverb

    To subject (granular material, especially food grain) to a current of air separating heavier and lighter components, as grain from chaff.

  3. winnowverb

    To separate, sift, analyze, or test in this manner.

  4. winnowverb

    To blow upon or toss about by blowing; to set in motion as with a fan or wings.

  5. winnowverb

    To move about with a flapping motion, as of wings; to flutter.

  6. Etymology: From winewen, windewen, windwen, from windwian, from wendwōnan, from wē-. Cognate with winden, vinsa.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. To Winnowverb

    Etymology: windrian , Saxon; evanno, Latin.

    Were our royal faith martyrs in love,
    We shall be winnow’d with so rough a wind,
    That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,
    And good from bad find no partition. William Shakespeare, Hen. IV.

    In the sun your golden grain display,
    And thrash it out and winnow it by day. John Dryden, Virgil.

    Now on the polar winds, then with quick fan
    Winnows the buxom air. John Milton, Paradise Lost.

    Winnow well this thought, and you shall find
    ’Tis light as chaff that flies before the wind. Dryden.

    Bitter torture shall
    Winnow the truth from falshood. William Shakespeare, Cymbeline.

  2. To Winnowverb

    To part corn from chaff.

    Winnow not with every wind, and go not into every way. Ecclus v. 9.

Wikipedia

  1. winnow

    Winnowing is a process by which chaff is separated from grain. It can also be used to remove pests from stored grain. Winnowing usually follows threshing in grain preparation. In its simplest form, it involves throwing the mixture into the air so that the wind blows away the lighter chaff, while the heavier grains fall back down for recovery. Techniques included using a winnowing fan (a shaped basket shaken to raise the chaff) or using a tool (a winnowing fork or shovel) on a pile of harvested grain.

ChatGPT

  1. winnow

    Winnow refers to the process of removing the unwanted or less valuable parts from something or a group in order to separate out the more valuable parts. Most commonly, it is used to describe the method of separating grain from chaff by blowing wind or air through it. In a wider context, it can also mean to remove, eliminate or separate through a process of selection.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Winnowverb

    to separate chaff from grain

  2. Etymology: [OE. windewen, winewen, AS. windwian; akin to Goth. winpjan (in comp.), winpi-skauro a fan, L. ventilare to fan, to winnow; cf. L. wannus a fan for winnowing, G. wanne, OHG. wanna. 131. See Wind moving air, and cf. Fan., n., Ventilate.]

Wikidata

  1. Winnow

    The winnow algorithm is a technique from machine learning for learning a linear classifier from labeled examples. It is very similar to the perceptron algorithm. However, the perceptron algorithm uses an additive weight-update scheme, while Winnow uses a multiplicative scheme that allows it to perform much better when many dimensions are irrelevant. It is a simple algorithm that scales well to high-dimensional data. During training, Winnow is shown a sequence of positive and negative examples. From these it learns a decision hyperplane that can then be used to label novel examples as positive or negative. The algorithm can also be used in the online learning setting, where the learning and the classification phase are not clearly separated.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Winnow

    win′ō, v.i. to separate the chaff from the grain by wind: to fan: to examine: to sift: to blow upon: (Milt.) to set in motion: (rare) to flap, flutter.—v.i. to separate chaff from grain.—n. a fan for winnowing.—ns. Winn′ower; Winn′owing; Winn′owing-fan, -machine′, a fan, machine, for winnowing. [A.S. windwian, to winnow.]

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of winnow in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of winnow in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of winnow in a Sentence

  1. Monmouth University:

    They realize that only one of them can move onto the next contest after the first two (states), they realize you have to winnow down this field of establishment candidates to just one and the only way you're going to do it at this point is to start taking the other ones out.

  2. David Bernhardt:

    We're at step one, not step seven, the entire planning process is supposed to do this: start out big and winnow down.

  3. Amalie Nash:

    Iowa's role isn't to pick the eventual nominee, it's to winnow the field.

  4. Assistant Attorney General Christina Grossi:

    Mr. Flood participated in the formation of the very procedures the agencies used to winnow down the millions of documents and identify those that are responsive to the subpoenas.

  5. David Bernhardt:

    The entire planning process is supposed to do this: start out big and winnow down.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

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Translations for winnow

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"winnow." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 9 Feb. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/winnow>.

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