Sifac
(Si"fac) n. (Zoöl.) The white indris of Madagascar. It is regarded by the natives as sacred.
Sifflement
(Sif"fle*ment) n. [F., a whistling or hissing.] The act of whistling or hissing; a whistling sound; sibilation.
[Obs.] A. Brewer.
Sifilet
(Sif"i*let) n. [Cf. F. siflet.] (Zoöl.) The six-shafted bird of paradise. See Paradise bird, under
Paradise.
Sift
(Sift) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sifted; p. pr. & vb. n. Sifting.] [AS. siftan, from sife sieve. &radic151a.
See Sieve.]
1. To separate with a sieve, as the fine part of a substance from the coarse; as, to sift meal or flour; to
sift powder; to sift sand or lime.
2. To separate or part as if with a sieve.
When yellow sands are sifted from below,
The glittering billows give a golden show.
Dryden. 3. To examine critically or minutely; to scrutinize.
Sifting the very utmost sentence and syllable.
Hooker.
Opportunity I here have had
To try thee, sift thee.
Milton.
Let him but narrowly sift his ideas.
I. Taylor. To sift out, to search out with care, as if by sifting.
Sifter
(Sift"er) n.
1. One who, or that which, sifts.
2. (Zoöl.) Any lamellirostral bird, as a duck or goose; — so called because it sifts or strains its food from
the water and mud by means of the lamell of the beak.
Sig
(Sig) n. [Akin to AS. sigan to fall. &radic151a. See Sink, v. t.] Urine. [Prov. Eng.]
Sigaultian
(Si*gaul"ti*an) a. (Surg.) Pertaining to Sigault, a French physician. See Symphyseotomy.
Sigger
(Sig"ger), v. i. Same as Sicker. [Prov. Eng.]
Sigh
(Sigh) v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sighed ; p. pr. & vb. n. Sighing.] [OE. sighen, sien; cf. also OE.
siken, AS. sican, and OE. sighten, siten, sichten, AS. siccettan; all, perhaps, of imitative origin.]
1. To inhale a larger quantity of air than usual, and immediately expel it; to make a deep single audible
respiration, especially as the result or involuntary expression of fatigue, exhaustion, grief, sorrow, or the
like.
2. Hence, to lament; to grieve.
He sighed deeply in his spirit.
Mark viii. 12. 3. To make a sound like sighing.
And the coming wind did roar more loud,
And the sails did sigh like sedge.
Coleridge.
The winter winds are wearily sighing.
Tennyson.
