Also 6 -owe. [f. next.]
1. A contrivance for winnowing grain, etc.; a winnowing-fan or the like.
1580. H. F., Pelegrom. Syn. Sylva, 126. A Fan or a Winnowe.
1766. Compl. Farmer, s.v. Threshing, The casting-shovel is much more expeditious than … the common winnow with sails.
1818. R. P. Knight, Symb. Lang., 132. Osiris has the winnow in one hand, and the hook of attraction in the other.
1890. Sci. Amer., 14 June, 374/2. They [leaves of Palmyra palm] are largely employed for making pans, bags, winnows [etc.].
2. An act of winnowing or a motion resembling it, as the swing of a pendent mass, the sweep of wings.
1802. Coleridge, Picture, 148. How solemnly the pendent ivy-mass Swings in its winnow.
1829. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 3), III. 454. Some degree of humidity … which should be swept away by the winnow of a stirring breeze.
a. 1851. Moir, Birth of Flowers, v. From every winnow of her wings.
