— filterer , n.
/fil"teuhr/ , n.
1. any substance, as cloth, paper, porous porcelain, or a layer of charcoal or sand, through which liquid or gas is passed to remove suspended impurities or to recover solids.
2. any device, as a tank or tube, containing such a substance for filtering.
3. any of various analogous devices, as for removing dust from air or impurities from tobacco smoke, or for eliminating certain kinds of light rays.
4. Informal. a filter-tipped cigarette or cigar.
5. Photog. a lens screen of dyed gelatin or glass for controlling the rendering of color or for diminishing the intensity of light.
6. Electronics , Physics. a circuit or device that passes certain frequencies and blocks others.
7. Math. a collection of subsets of a topological space, having the properties that the intersection of two subsets in the collection is a subset in the collection and that any set containing a subset in the collection is in the collection.
v.t.
8. to remove by the action of a filter.
9. to act as a filter for; to slow or partially obstruct the passage of: The thick leaves filtered the sunlight.
10. to pass through or as through a filter.
v.i.
11. to pass or slip through slowly, as through an obstruction or a filter: Enemy agents managed to filter into the embattled country.
[ 1375-1425; late ME filtre filtrum felt, piece of felt used to strain liquids 2 ]
Syn. 11. penetrate, sift, seep, trickle, leak.