winnow
verb [T] /ˈwɪn.əʊ/
/-oʊ/ Definition
› to blow the chaff (= the outer coverings) from grain before it can be used as foodRemoving the skin or seed from fruit and vegetables › formal to reduce a large number of people or things to a much smaller number by judging their quality: A list of 15 candidates has been winnowed down to a shortlist of three. a winnowing processBecoming and making smaller or lessBecoming and making less strong
(Definition of winnow verb from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus
© Cambridge University Press)
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You are looking at an entry to do with Becoming and making smaller or less, but you might be interested in these topics from the Size and quantity topic area:
- Also, extra, and in addition
- Augmenting and supplementing
- Available and accessible
- Becoming bigger
- Big and quite big
- Enlarging and inflating
- Enormous
- Enough
- Extremely small
- General words for size and amount
- Increasing and intensifying
- Large in number or quantity
- Masses and large amounts of things
- Maximum and minimum
- Medium-sized
- Merely and barely
- Plenty and abundant
- Scarce, inadequate and not enough
- Small
- Small in number and quantity
- Some and quite
- Someone, anyone, no one or everyone
- Something, anything, nothing, and everything
- Things collected in lines or rings
- Things remaining
- Too much and unnecessary
- Unavailable and inaccessible
- Unlimited
- Words meaning small pieces and amounts
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Synonyms and related words:
- a nip (here) and a tuck (there) idiom
- absorb verb (TAKE IN)
- attenuate verb
- axe verb
- bite into sth phrasal verb
- boil sth down phrasal verb
- compress verb
- contraction noun (REDUCTION)
- let sth down phrasal verb (AIR)
- let-up noun
- lower verb (REDUCE)
- make a hole in sth idiom
- miniaturization noun
- scale sth down phrasal verb
- shave sth off sth phrasal verb
- shrivel verb
- slash verb
- slim sth down phrasal verb
- slip verb (VALUE)
- telescope verb
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