The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Sift \Sift\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sifted; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Sifting.] [AS. siftan, from sife sieve. [root]151a. 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.
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   2. To separate or part as if with a sieve.
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            When yellow sands are sifted from below,
            The glittering billows give a golden show. --Dryden.
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   3. To examine critically or minutely; to scrutinize.
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            Sifting the very utmost sentence and syllable.
                                                  --Hooker.
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            Opportunity I here have had
            To try thee, sift thee.               --Milton.
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            Let him but narrowly sift his ideas.  --I. Taylor.
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   To sift out, to search out with care, as if by sifting.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

sift
    v 1: move as if through a sieve; "The soldiers sifted through
         the woods"
    2: separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device
       to separate out coarser elements; "sift the flour" [syn:
       sift, sieve, strain]
    3: check and sort carefully; "sift the information" [syn:
       sieve, sift]
    4: distinguish and separate out; "sift through the job
       candidates" [syn: sieve, sift]

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 January 2023):

SIFT

   SHARE Internal Fortran Translator.  Translation utility
   designed for converting Fortran II to Fortran IV.  The word
   "sift" was often used as a verb to describe converting code
   from one language to another.  Sammet 1969, p.153.