sieve /sɪv/noun 6verb 2forms 3 noun6 •A device with a mesh, grate, or otherwise perforated bottom to separate, in a granular material, larger particles from smaller ones, or to separate solid objects from a liquid.Use the sieve to get the pasta from the water. •A process, physical or abstract, that arrives at a final result by filtering out unwanted pieces of input from a larger starting set of input.Given a list of consecutive numbers starting at 1, the Sieve of Eratosthenes algorithm will find all of the prime numbers. •(informal) A person, or their mind, that cannot remember things or is unable to keep secrets. •(slang, disapproving) An intern who lets too many non-serious cases into the emergency room.To be a sieve was to lack clinical judgment, courage, and group loyalty all at once. — 1997 •A collection of morphisms in a category whose codomain is a certain fixed object of that category, which collection is closed under precomposition by any morphism in the category. •(no longer used) A kind of coarse basket. verb2 •To strain, sift or sort using a sieve.Serpulorbis grandis feeds on plankton that it seives ^([sic]) from the water like a clam does. — 2001 •To concede; to let in. formssieved · sieving · sieves
