0 present participle of sift
1 to put flour, sugar, etc. through a sieve (= wire net shaped like a bowl) to break up large pieces:
2 to make a close examination of all the parts of something in order to find something or to separate what is useful from what is not:
They argued for a narrower focus, with more sifting of the data seeking entry to personality research.
Authoritative sources remain necessary for scholarship - along with the sampling and sifting that help us to generate ideas and form research strategies.
Observations were made three times a day by sifting the sand in order to record the number of pupae.
Selection of a sample sufficiently large for aggregate analysis would involve considerable sifting of a sampling frame of all married couples.
It could be a very useful piece of evidence in sifting through competing hypotheses for psychological design.
Along the whole transect 7622 individual ants were collected by litter sifting.
The cleaning and sifting of the debris found at the time of our work in the area was not very productive.
This process of thorough searching for information can be very resource intensive, requiring staff time for searching and sifting the results.
