separate the wheat from the chaff

• sort the wheat from the chaff, winnow the wheat from the chaff, winnow grain from chaff

The figurative sense is by extension from the literal sense, which is threshing. Because threshing has been an important activity for humans for thousands of years, it is well represented both in folk wisdom and (relatedly) in the bible; for example, Matthew 3:12.^[1]

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separate the wheat from the chaff (third-person singular simple present separates the wheat from the chaff, present participle separating the wheat from the chaff, simple past and past participle separated the wheat from the chaff)

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To select only that which is of value.

   Synonym: winnow

   Hyponyms: (figurative) cream the crop, cherry-pick

   • 2022 July 13, Rachel Cheung, “A Bored Chinese Housewife Spent Years Falsifying Russian History on Wikipedia”, in Vice‎:

     As a punishment, Zhemao and her affiliated accounts were suspended permanently. Most of her articles were deleted based on community consensus. Some Wikipedians even wrote to experts, seeking help to separate the wheat from the chaff.

• wheat and tares