Winnow vs Flail - What's the difference?
winnow | flail |
(agriculture) To subject (granular material, especially food grain) to a current of air separating heavier and lighter components, as grain from chaff.
*
(figuratively) To separate, sift, analyze, or test in this manner.
(literary) To blow upon or toss about by blowing; to set in motion as with a fan or wings.
* 1872 Elliott Coues, Key to North American Birds
(intransitive, literary, dated) To move about with a flapping motion, as of wings; to flutter.
That which winnows or which is used in winnowing; a contrivance for fanning or winnowing grain.
A tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle with a shorter stick attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.
A weapon which has the (usually spherical) striking part attached to the handle with a flexible joint such as a chain.
His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-labourers could not end; * 1816 — *: Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail * 1842 — *: On him alone the curse of Cain
Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
And struck him to the earth! * 1879 — , ch V *: If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher... To beat using a flail or similar implement.
To wave or swing vigorously
*
* 1937 , ,
To thresh.
To move like a flail.
As verbs the difference between winnow and flail
is that winnow is to subject (granular material, especially food grain) to a current of air separating heavier and lighter components, as grain from chaff while flail is to beat using a flail or similar implement.As nouns the difference between winnow and flail
is that winnow is that which winnows or which is used in winnowing; a contrivance for fanning or winnowing grain while flail is a tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle with a shorter stick attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.winnow
English
Verb
(en verb)- They winnowed the field to twelve.
- They winnowed the winners from the losers.
- They winnowed the losers from the winners.
- Gulls average much larger than terns, with stouter build; the feet are larger and more ambulatorial, the wings are shorter and not so thin; the birds winnow the air in a steady course unlike the buoyant dashing flight of their relatives.
Usage notes
* Used with adverb or preposition "down"; see also winnow down. * Used with adverbs or prepositions "through", "away", and "out".Derived terms
* winnow down * winnower * winnowing basket * winnowing fan * winnowing machine * winnow sheet * winnow grain from chaff * winnow the wheat from the chaffNoun
(en noun)References
* * *flail
English
Noun
(en noun)Quotations
* 1631 — *: When in one night, ere glimpse of morn,His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn
That ten day-labourers could not end; * 1816 — *: Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail * 1842 — *: On him alone the curse of Cain
Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
And struck him to the earth! * 1879 — , ch V *: If the farmer must use the spade because he has not capital enough for a plough, the sickle instead of the reaping machine, the flail instead of the thresher...
Coordinate terms
*(weapon) nunchakuVerb
(en verb)- He stopped in his tracks – then, flailing his arms wildly in the air, began to stagger backwards.
- He was flailing wildly, but didn't land a blow.
