sift

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To put (flour, for example) through a sieve or other straining device in order to separate the fine from the coarse particles.
2. v. To distinguish as if separating with a sieve: sifted the candidates for the job.
3. v. To apply by scattering with or as if with a sieve: sift sugar on a dessert.
4. v. To examine and sort carefully: sift the evidence.
5. v. To make use of a sieve.
6. v. To pass through or as if through a sieve: a meal that sifts easily.
7. v. To make a careful examination: sifted through back issues of the magazine.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To cause the finer parts of to pass through a sieve; part or separate the larger and smaller elements of, by shaking in a sieve; bolt: as, to sift meal, powder, sand, or lime; to sift the flour from the bran.
2. To pass or shake through or from anything in the manner of a sieve; pour out or stir up loosely, like particles falling from a sieve: as, to sift sand through the fingers; to sift sugar upon a cake.
3. To act upon or about as if by means of a sieve; examine with close scrutiny; subject to minute analysis: used with a great variety of applications: sometimes with out: as, to sift the good from the bad; to sift out the truth of the matter; to sift a proposition.
4. Synonyms Sift, Bolt, Strain, Screen. Sift is used especially of action by means of a sieve, or of anything serving as a sieve, as an independent instrument; bolt, of the separation of meal and bran, or of the different grades of meal or flour, or the like, by the mechanism of a mill. Strain and screen are used of analogous action upon liquids and coarser solids.
5. To pass or fall loosely or scatteringly, as if through the meshes of a sieve: as, the dust or the snow sifted through the crevices; the light sifts from the clouds.
6. To practise detailed scrutiny or investigation; make close examination.
7. n. Something that falls or passes as if from the meshes of a sieve; sifting or sifted material.

Wiktionary

1. v. To sieve or strain (something).
2. v. To separate or scatter (things) as if by sieving.
3. v. To examine (something) carefully.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To separate with a sieve, as the fine part of a substance from the coarse
2. v. To separate or part as if with a sieve.
3. v. To examine critically or minutely; to scrutinize.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. distinguish and separate out
2. v. separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device to separate out coarser elements
3. v. move as if through a sieve
4. v. check and sort carefully