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winnowed

  • past participle
    of winnow.
    winnow
    verb (used with object)
    to free (grain) from the lighter particles of chaff, dirt, etc., especially by throwing it into the air and allowing the wind or a forced current of air to blow away impurities.
  • past tense form
    of winnow.
    winnow
    verb (used with object)
    to free (grain) from the lighter particles of chaff, dirt, etc., especially by throwing it into the air and allowing the wind or a forced current of air to blow away impurities.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

But oddly enough, the unprecedented computing power now pointed at chess hasn’t winnowed the number of strong moves—it has actually expanded them.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

What’s the point of watching a game that can be winnowed down to a series of inputs and outputs?

From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2026

Per the Hollywood Reporter, Merit’s measly weekly viewer numbers soon winnowed down further, to 17,000.

From Slate ● Oct. 14, 2025

Next, Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney's office, and Todd Blanche, Mr Trump's lead attorney, took turns grilling a winnowed batch of 18 people to weed out any bias.

From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2024

Those invaders get winnowed by natural selection, and only a few of them succeed in establishing themselves as human diseases.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond