winnowed

• “But it was not until the last few weeks that McCain winnowed his list to five or six finalists.”

  August « 2008 « Niqnaq

• “They try them, as silver in the furnace is refined from its dross; they purge them, as wheat in the barn is winnowed from the chaff; and they make them white, as cloth by the fuller is cleared from its spots.”

  Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi)

• “At what point do we see this really huge field kind of winnowed down to a handful of serious contenders, do you think?”

  CNN Transcript Jan 29, 2007

• “Not allowing the field to be kind of winnowed down to one or two people that everyone can get behind?”

  CNN Transcript Feb 3, 2004

• “winnowed" as the opening of the beautiful and passionate soliloquy of”

  Notes and Queries, Number 192, July 2, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc

• “They winnowed it down, separating essentials from wish lists, then Gail and Stu summarized them in a memo to me.”

  Simon & Schuster: The Good Fight

• “In closing the fund, the Menlo Park, Calif., firm is bucking two prevailing trends in the venture-capital industry, including an anemic fund-raising environment that has winnowed the number of venture firms that can raise large pools of capital.”

  The Wall Street Journal: Khosla's Billion-Dollar Fund

• “So when this playoff field is winnowed to three or four candidates, he will need to show he can break through that ceiling by winning early and demonstrating growth potential.”

  The Huffington Post: Matthew Dowd: Bracketology: The Republican Race for President

• “As compounds graduate to phase III studies or are winnowed out for lack of significant benefit, new candidates are cycled in, sparing the cost and time to mount separate trials.”

  The Wall Street Journal: A New Rx for Medicine

• “Their ranks are winnowed down by success, as well.”

  The Wall Street Journal: The Precarious Life of a Lefty Reliever

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