1. to separate grain from chaff by blowing air through it
Usage: agricultural
2. to examine carefully in order to separate good from bad; to sift through
3. to reduce the number of something by removing the less desirable parts

Examples

• Farmers winnow wheat to remove the chaff from the grain.
• The committee will winnow the applications down to ten finalists.
• She winnowed through hundreds of resumes to find qualified candidates.
• The coach winnowed the team roster from thirty players to twenty.
• Researchers winnow data to identify meaningful patterns.
• The editor winnowed the manuscript to remove unnecessary passages.