From Middle English syften, from Old English siftan, from Proto-West Germanic *siftijan.

• IPA: /sɪft/

sift (sifts, present participle sifting; simple past and past participle sifted)

1. To sieve or strain (something).
2. To separate or scatter (things) as if by sieving.
3. To examine (something) carefully.
   1. (archaic or old-fashioned) To scrutinise (someone or something) carefully so as to find the truth.
      • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene i], page 23 ↗, column 1:

        As neere as I could ſift him on that argument,
        On ſome apparant danger ſeene in him,
        Aym‘d at your Highneſſe, no inueterate malice.

   2. [with through] To carefully go through a set of objects, or a collection of information, in order to find something.
4. (computing, dated) To move data records up in memory to make space to insert further records.

• French: passer, tamiser
• German: sieben
• Italian: setacciare, vagliare
• Portuguese: discernir, cindir
• Russian: просе́ивать
• Spanish: tamizar, cernir

• French: éparpiller, disséminer
• German: sieben
• Italian: discernere
• Portuguese: peneirar
• Russian: отсе́ивать
• Spanish: separar

• German: sichten, durchgehen
• Italian: setacciare, esaminare minuziosamente
• Portuguese: examinar minuciosamente, discernir
• Spanish: examinar minuciosamente, juzgar

sift (plural sifts)

1. An act of sifting.

1. (computer graphics) Init of w:scale-invariant feature transform
2. (US, military) Init of Selection Instrument Flight Training