separate wheat from chaff

separate the wheat from the chaff

To separate the good or valuable from that which is inferior. With so many manuscripts arriving daily, it's a challenge to separate the wheat from the chaff and spot the really exceptional ones.
See also: chaff, separate, wheat
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

separate wheat from chaff

Sort the valuable from the worthless, as in I hope we'll get a preview of the auction so we can separate the wheat from the chaff. This idiom alludes to the ancient practice of winnowing grain.
See also: chaff, separate, wheat
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • separate the wheat from the chaff
  • separate the wheat from the chaff, to
  • sort out/separate the wheat from the chaff
  • separate
  • separate out
  • under separate cover
  • chaff
  • cull the herd
  • be far/further/furthest removed from (something)
  • be far/further/furthest removed from something
References in periodicals archive
People are able to separate wheat from chaff. At some point, they understand what is good for them and what is gimmick and jumla.
A New Brew Of Poll Politics
Why not hold an inquiry into our wars to separate wheat from chaff.
The making of Kargil disaster
Millennial aren't stupid; that quote-unquote cynicism means they deftly separate wheat from chaff. And if they keep seeing unimaginative riffs on the same colors and fonts, they're going to start rolling their eyes.
Surface Media's CEO riffs on a word or trend. This month: Millennial branding. Also, pineapples!
In order to separate wheat from chaff, Claims'Eric Gilkey spoke with Kevin Turner, executive vice president for Cambridge Integrated Services--a company that minimizes claim and loss costs--to find out what will shape the workers' compensation industry in the near future.
With Kevin Turner, Executive Vice President, Cambridge Integrated Services
Being part of an even larger network of detectors would also help the instruments separate wheat from chaff and triangulate on celestial sources.
Catch a Wave
But while the book under review may be of some value for more advanced students of early modern magical thought, readers will need a good deal of scholarly discrimination to separate wheat from chaff.
Trithemius and Magical Theology: A Chapter in the Controversy over Occult Studies in Early Modern Europe