separate the wheat from the chaff
Meaning: To distinguish what is valuable from what is worthless.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The editor's job is to separate the wheat from the chaff.”
Category: Nature
Origin: In threshing, the edible grain is separated from its husks, the chaff. The image appears in the Gospels (Matthew 3:12), where the chaff is burned.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Séparer le bon grain de l'ivraie — literally: To separate the good grain from the darnel
More idioms — Nature
- promise the moon — To promise something impossible to deliver.
- Indian summer — A period of warm weather in autumn; also a late, happy period in life.
- drag someone's name through the mud — To damage someone's reputation publicly.
- as old as the hills — Extremely old.
- can't see the forest for the trees — Too focused on details to understand the whole situation.
- find one's sea legs — To get used to a boat's movement; to grow comfortable in a new situation.
More English idioms
- a whole different ball game — A completely different situation.
- elbow grease — Hard physical work, especially scrubbing or polishing.
- not mince one's words — To speak frankly, even bluntly.
- have a heavy heart — To feel sad or burdened.
- in one's heart of hearts — In one's deepest private feelings.
- thick and fast — Rapidly and in large numbers.
From our untranslatable words
- Nadryv — An uncontrolled outpouring of buried feeling, often strained past anything the person tru…
- Yurodivy — One who plays the fool deliberately as a religious act, and is therefore licensed to spea…
- Khalyava — Something good got for free and without effort — and, strictly, something you were never…