0 present participle of winnow --
1 to blow the chaff (= the outer coverings) from grain before it can be used as food --
a winnowing process
A list of 15 applicants has been winnowed down to three.
They are the result of a very careful process of the winnowing of all possible suggestions for dealing with a matter of the greatest difficulty.
A way forward can often be found by winnowing out those items which are genuinely confidential, firmly making it known that they are such.
Whatever winnowing process is adopted to sift the chaff from the grain, it is bound to be arbitrary and unsatisfactory.
That is why the winnowing process has been rigorous.
Usually, however, economists have recognized that it is implausible to treat all existing preferences as on a par for normative purposes, and have recommended at least some winnowing or correcting.
Wheat harvesting involved two separate activities : reaping and the related task of threshing and winnowing.
The first several episodes deal with the audition process and the winnowing down to the five boys from successive ranks first of twenty-five hopefuls, then of eight.
Routes were distributed where they would be most profitable, winnowing the department's deficit so that it could credibly take other policy initiatives to the public.
