Forms: α. 1 windwian, 2 windwin, 3 -en, Orm. winndwenn, 4 wyn-, windewe, wyndwe, 4–5 wyndowe, 4–7 windowe, 5 wyndou, -oe, 5–6 wyndo, (6 wyendo, wyondo, Sc. vyndou, wando), 5– (now north. dial.) window (9 winder). β. 4–5 wynwe, wynnewe, 4–6 wynewe, 5 wynou, wenowe, 5–6 wynowe, 6 wynew, wynnow(e, winowe, Sc. wonnow, 6–7 winnowe, (8 dial. winner), 6– winnow. [OE. windwian, f. wind WIND sb.1; cf. OE. windwiʓceaf chaff, windwiʓsife winnowing-sieve. Other verbal formations of the same meaning are Goth. diswinþjan to scatter like chaff, ON. vinza (:—*windisôjan), and L. ventilare (f. ventus wind). See also WIND v.3]
1. trans. To expose (grain or other substances) to the wind or to a current of air so that the lighter particles (as chaff or other refuse matter) are separated or blown away; to clear of refuse material by this method.
α. a. 900. O. E. Martyrol., 7 March, 36. He … corn þærsc & þæt windwode.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 85. In þe deie of liureisun hwense god almihtin wule windwin þet er wes iþor[s]chen.
c. 1200. Ormin, 1530. Þa winndwesst tu þin þrosshenn corn.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 270. Ane wummon … þet windwede hweate.
c. 1400. Maundev., xiii. (1919), I. 71. He … let wyndwe the askes in the wynd.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 7. Þen wyndo hit wele, nede þou mot.
1469. Plumpton Corr. (Camden), 21. Also that you gar the malt be windowd.
1549. Rec. Elgin (New Spald. Cl., 1903), I. 96. Quhatsumever personn was apprehendit wandoand corne in the hie gett.
1579. Nottingham Rec., IV. 190. No mann shall wyndo aney corne in the strettes.
1614. Manchester Crt. Leet Rec. (1885), II. 296. Inconvenience by ye often vsinge to Windowe … Corne in the Streets.
1729. P. Walkden, Diary (1866), 45. Windowed my wheat the chaff out of it.
β. 1382. Wyclif, Ruth iii. 2. In this nyȝt he wynnewith the flore of his barli.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 530/1. Wynwyn’ (P. wynowin), ventilo.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 185. Then made he to take vp þe bonys … and bren hom, and aftyr wynou ham yn þe wynde.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 35. In some countreys … they do fan theyr corne,… if it be well wynowed or fande, it wyll be solde the derer.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 125. More often ye turne, more pease ye out spurne, Yet winnow them in, er carrege begin.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 400. And in the Sun your golden Grain display, And thrash it out, and winnow it by Day.
1825. Gentl. Mag., March, 216. It [sc. the coffee-berry] is then winnowed, and goes into the hands of the pickers.
1855. E. Forbes, Lit. Papers, ix. 231. The tea is afterwards winnowed and sifted, so as to free it from impurities.
1893. Bridges, Winnowers, v. A steady muffled din, By which we knew that threshed corn Was winnowing.
b. fig. To subject to a process likened to the winnowing of grain, in order to separate the various parts or elements, esp. the good from the bad; hence, to clear of worthless or inferior elements.
1382. Wyclif, Jer. li. 2. Y shal sende in to Babilon wyneweres [1388 wyndeweris] and thei shul wynewe [1388 wyndewe] it.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke iii. 15–18. He shall … there winnowe euery creature, triyng them with the wynde of the crosse and of afflictions.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. i. 194. Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., V. i. 111.
1646. J. Whitaker, Uzziah, Ded. A 3 b. His [sc. Satan’s] desire is to winnow you; if he can ruin you he knows he ruins the Kingdom.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., I. 112. That Plot,… Not weigh’d or winnow’d by the Multitude, But swallow’d in the Mass.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 407. I cannot abuse my Reader’s Patience in winnowing and sifting it, since the whole is nothing but Chaff.
1829. Southey, Sir T. More (1831), I. 335. I wish it had been deemed advisable to have winnowed the Kalendar.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 456. After winnowing the list and excluding those who were considered not entitled to vote.
1875. Merivale, Gen. Hist. Rome, lxix. 563. The storm had no doubt the effect of winnowing the multitude of professing disciples.
c. absol. or intr.
c. 1200. Ormin, 10483. Þat ure Laferrd Iesu Crist…. Himm shollde brinngenn inn hiss hannd hiss winndell forr to winndwenn.
1388. Wyclif, Ecclus. v. 11. Wyndewe thee not in to ech wynd.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 56. Some vseth to winnow, some vseth to fan.
1621. J. Taylor (Water P.), Superbiæ Flagellum, C 1 b. Plant, graft, hedg, ditch, thresh, winnow, buy & sel.
1647. Fuller, Good Th. in Worse Times, 92. He would Fan, as he doth winnow.
1825. Yorks. Garland, etc., 16. Ah can milk, kern, fother, beeak, brew, sheear, winder.
1852. Emma R. Pitman, Mission Life in Greece & Pal. (1881), 145. To help them so to winnow that they cast not away the wheat with the chaff.
2. trans. (with that which is separated as obj.) a. To separate or drive off (lighter or refuse particles) by the process described in 1; fig. to separate (the worthless part from the valuable); to get rid of, clear away, eliminate (something undesirable).
In the earliest quots. a literalism from L. ventilare.
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter, xliii. 6 [xliv. 5]. In ðe fiond ure we windwiað.
1382. Wyclif, Deut. xxxiii. 17. In hem he shal wyndowe gentilys, vnto the teermes of the erthe. Ibid. (1382), Jer. xlix. 36. Y shal wynewe [1388 wyndewe] them in to alle these windus.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 341. Þey … wynewede þe askes awey with þe wynde.
c. 1390. Form of Cury, in Warner, Antiq. Culin. (1791), 4. Hule hem wele, and windewe out the hulkes.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 28. Distinction with a lowd and powrefull fan, Puffing at all, winnowes the light away.
1642. Milton, Apol. Smect., xii. 53. Do but winnow their chaffe from their wheat, ye shall see their great heape shrink.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 417. Your office is to winnow false from true.
1869. Lowell, Under the Willows, 229. And lets the kind breeze, with its delicate fan, Winnow the heat from out his dank grey hair.
1884. Tennyson, Becket, I. i. 84. And all my doubts I fling from me like dust, Winnow and scatter all scruples to the wind.
1893. Liddon, etc., Pusey, I. xvi. 359. The appointment … winnowed out the merely sentimental element from among adherents of the young Movement.
b. To separate (the valuable part from the worthless); (now esp. with out) to extract, select or obtain (something desirable) by such separation.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., V. v. 134. Giue answer to this Boy, and do it freely, Or … bitter torture shall Winnow the truth from falshood.
1647. May, Hist. Parlt., I. vii. 73. These inventions were but sives, made of purpose to winnow the best men.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Matt. iii. 12. He will winnow and throughly separate the wheat from the Chaff, the Faithful from the Rebellious.
a. 1797. H. Walpole, Geo. II. (1847), II. vii. 244. I live too near the times, and too far from the scene of action, to be able to penetrate into the exact detail of his campaigns and measures, and to winnow the truth from such a variety of interested, exaggerated, contested relations, as are at once produced by eminent glory, and strive to obscure it.
1827. Scott, Chron. Canongate, Introd. In winnowing out the few grains of truth which are contained in this mass of empty fiction.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., II. viii. To winnow out the man that is to govern them.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 905. Such persons are probably many, but there is no means of winnowing them out.
c. To waft, diffuse. poet.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 122. While sea-born gales their gelid wings expand To winnow fragrance round the smiling land.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 22. The woolly clouds … Keep winnowing down their drifting sleet and snows.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust, I. i. 23. With wings that winnow blessing From Heaven through Earth I see them pressing.
3. In various transf. uses (cf. L. ventilare and FAN v. 2–5): a. † To brandish or flourish (obs.); to beat (the air) with or as with wings; to flap (the wings), to wave (the fins); also intr. or with cognate obj., to follow a course with flapping wings, or the like.
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse, Apol. (Arb.), 75. Players haue chosen such a Champion, as when I giue the Allarm, winnowes his weapon.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 270. He … Sailes between worlds & worlds, with steddie wing Now on the polar windes, then with quick Fann Winnows the buxom Air.
1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 745. Their self-taught wings Winnow the waving element.
1793. [see WINNOWING ppl. a.].
1795. Burns, ‘Now spring has clad the groves in green,’ iv. The waken’d lav’rock … Winnowing blythe her dewy wings In morning’s rosy eye.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., II. i. 27. Her sea-green plumes Winnowing the crimson dawn.
1844, 1856. [see WINNOWING vbl. sb. 2].
1852. Mrs. C. Meredith, My Home in Tasmania, II. xviii. 252. Their [sc. owls’] ghostly shapes winnowing silently around in the twilight.
1865. [see WINNOWING ppl. a.].
1873. Geikie, Geol. Sketches, iv. (1882), 78. In winnowing the air with his arms, he had struck against a waggon standing on the roadway.
1887. Newton, in Encycl. Brit., XXII. 200/1. After … reaching a height at which it appears a mere speck, where it winnows a random zigzag course, it … shoots downwards.
b. Of the air, etc.: trans. To fan with a breeze. intr. To blow fitfully or in gusts.
1796. Campbell, Caroline, II. ix. Where, winnowed by the gentle air, Her silken tresses darkly flow.
1820. [see WINNOWING ppl. a.].
1827. Clare, Sheph. Cal., 7. Falling snows that winnow by.
1892. Amélie Rives, Barbara Dering, xxvii. Here upon this great crest a purer air came winnowing in.
