From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsiftsift /sɪft/ verb [transitive] 1 DFCto put flour, sugar etc through a sieve or similar container in order to remove large pieces2 (also sift through)EXAMINE to examine information, documents etc carefully in order to find something out or decide what is important and what is not Police are sifting through the evidence. → sift something ↔ out→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
sift• Shama meanwhile had begun to sift through a small sheaf of numbered pages.• It will take a while to sift through all these magazines.• To ensure that information would sift through from all corners of the Company, a local spokesperson was elected from each department.• I sift through memory, and this is what I say: She was a princess.• By midday Monday, police were sifting through more than 300 tips.• Having sifted through the estate agents' details, arrange appointments to view as many properties as possible.• She prided herself on her ability to sift through the most innocent conversations and turn them into major scandals.• Police continued to sift through the statements of various witnesses Saturday.• Tim Brown sifted through the trade talk, clearly and succinctly.Origin sift Old English siftan 