- a tool for separating solids from liquids or larger solids from smaller solids, made of a wire or plastic net attached to a ring. The liquid or small pieces pass through the net but the larger pieces do not.
- Press the apricot jam through a sieve and stir in one tablespoon of cold water.
- Wash the rice in a sieve under cold running water.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- fine
- large
- strain something through
- pass something through
- press something through
- …
- in a/the sieve
- through a/the sieve
Word OriginOld English sife (noun), of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch zeef and German Sieb.
Idioms
See sieve in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryhave a memory/mind like a sieve
- (informal) to have a very bad memory; to forget things easily
Check pronunciation:
sieve