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sieve

1. A utensil for separating the finer and coarser parts of a pulverized or granulated substance from each other. It consist of a vessel, usually shallow, with the bottom perforated, or made of hair, wire, or the like, woven in meshes. In a sieve thrown and sifted.

2. A kind of coarse basket.

(Science: botany) Sieve cells, cribriform cells. See Cribriform.

Origin: OE. Sive, AS. Sife; akin to D. Zeef, zift, OHG. Sib, G. Sieb. A. Cf. Sift.