n.
- a porous device for removing impurities or solid particles from a liquid or gas passed through it.
▸a screen, plate, or layer which absorbs some of the light passing through it.
▸a device for suppressing electrical or sound waves of frequencies not required.
- Brit. an arrangement whereby vehicles may turn left (or right) while other traffic waiting to go straight ahead or turn right (or left) is stopped by a red light.
- Computing a piece of software that processes data before passing it to another application, for example to remove unwanted material.
v.
- pass through a filter.
-
(often filter in/out/through)
move or pass into something slowly or gradually.
▸(of information) gradually become known.
Derivative
- filterable
(also filtrable)
adj.
Etymology
ME (denoting a piece of felt): from Fr. filtre, from med. L. filtrum ‘felt used as a filter’, of W. Gmc origin and rel. to felt1.