Sievish

//ˈsɪvɪʃ// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Like a sieve: unretentive. figuratively, rare

    "Perhaps I have a frighteningly sievish memory, but I’ll be damned if I can flip a folded chart back and forth and remember exactly what was on the other side."

Example

More examples

"Perhaps I have a frighteningly sievish memory, but I’ll be damned if I can flip a folded chart back and forth and remember exactly what was on the other side."

Etymology

Formed as sieve + -ish. Compare memory like a sieve.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.