FILTER
filter
(noun) device that removes something from whatever passes through it
filter
(noun) an electrical device that alters the frequency spectrum of signals passing through it
percolate, sink in, permeate, filter
(verb) pass through; “Water permeates sand easily”
filter, filtrate, strain, separate out, filter out
(verb) remove by passing through a filter; “filter out the impurities”
trickle, dribble, filter
(verb) run or flow slowly, as in drops or in an unsteady stream; “water trickled onto the lawn from the broken hose”; “reports began to dribble in”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
filter (plural filters)
A device which separates a suspended, dissolved, or particulate matter from a fluid, solution, or other substance; any device that separates one substance from another.
Electronics or software that separates unwanted signals (for example noise) from wanted signals or that attenuates selected frequencies.
Any item, mechanism, device or procedure that acts to separate or isolate.
(figurative) self-restraint in speech.
(mathematics, order theory) A non-empty upper set (of a partially ordered set) which is closed under binary infima (a.k.a. meets).
Antonyms
• (order theory): ideal
Hyponyms
• air filter
• cigarette filter
• fuel filter
• intent filter
• oil filter
• glare filter
• ultrafilter
Verb
filter (third-person singular simple present filters, present participle filtering, simple past and past participle filtered)
(transitive) To sort, sift, or isolate.
• This strainer should filter out the large particles.
(transitive) To diffuse; to cause to be less concentrated or focused.
• The leaves of the trees filtered the light.
(intransitive) To pass through a filter or to act as though passing through a filter.
• The water filtered through the rock and soil.
(intransitive) To move slowly or gradually; to come or go a few at a time.
• The crowd filtered into the theater.
(intransitive) To ride a motorcycle between lanes on a road
• I can skip past all the traffic on my bike by filtering.
Synonyms
• (to sort) to filter out (something)
Anagrams
• filtre, firtle, lifter, relift, trifle
Source: Wiktionary
Fil"ter, n. Etym: [F. filtre, the same word as feutre felt, LL.
filtrum, feltrum, felt, fulled wool, this being used for straining
liquors. See Feuter.]
Definition: Any porous substance, as cloth, paper, sand, or charcoal,
through which water or other liquid may passed to cleanse it from the
solid or impure matter held in suspension; a chamber or device
containing such substance; a strainer; also, a similar device for
purifying air. Filter bed, a pond, the bottom of which is a filter
composed of sand gravel.
– Filter gallery, an underground gallery or tunnel, alongside of a
stream, to collect the water that filters through the intervening
sand and gravel; -- called also infiltration gallery.
Fil"ter, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Filtered; p. pr. & vb. n. Filtering]
Etym: [Cf. F. filter. See Filter, n., and cf. Filtrate.]
Definition: To purify or defecate, as water or other liquid, by causing it
to pass through a filter. Filtering paper, or Filter paper, a porous
unsized paper, for filtering.
Fil"ter, v. i.
Definition: To pass through a filter; to percolate.
Fil"ter, n.
Definition: Same as Philter.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition