Sives

Sives are a plural form of the noun sive, an archaic or dialect word for a sieve, a device with a mesh used to separate particles by size. In modern standard English the common spelling is sieve; sives is chiefly encountered in Scots language and older texts. A sive consists of a frame holding a screen of metal, wire, or other material; mesh size determines what passes through and what is retained. Sives are used in cooking and baking to sift flour, powdered sugar, or other dry ingredients; in agriculture and food processing to clean grain or seeds; in science and industry to separate solids from liquids or to grade granular materials; and in mining or ore processing to separate ore from waste by shaking or tapping the mesh.

The term appears in historical dictionaries and dialect sources acknowledging its origin as a variant spelling of sieve. In everyday use, writers typically use sieve, or refer to sives only when quoting older texts or dialect speech. Contemporary equivalents include metal sieves, plastic kitchen sieves, or sieve baskets used in winemaking and filtration. The concept is the same across cultures: a perforated or woven screen that allows smaller particles to pass while retaining larger ones.

Sives may appear in literature or dialect discussions as historical language forms. See also sieve.