separate Idioma

separate the sheep from the goats

Idiom(s): separate the sheep from the goats

Theme: DIVISION

to divide people into two groups.
• Working in a place like this really separates the sheep from the goats.
• We cant go on with the game until we separate the sheep from the goats. Let's see who can jump the farthest.

separate the men from the boys

Idiom(s): separate the men from the boys

Theme: SEPARATION

to separate the competent from those who are less competent.
• This is the kind of task that separates the men from the boys.
• This project requires a lot of thinking. It'll separate the men from the boys.

Separate the wheat from the chaff

When you separate the wheat from the chaff, you select what is useful or valuable and reject what is useless or worthless.

separate the men from the boys|boys|men|separate

v. phr., informal To show who has strength, courage and loyalty and find who do not. When the ship hit an iceberg and sank, it separated the men from the boys. The mile run separates the men from the boys.

separate but equal

separate but equal
Relating to or affected by a policy whereby two groups may be segregated if they are given equal facilities and opportunities. For example, They've divided up the physical education budget so that the girls' teams are separate but equal to the boys. This idiom comes from a Louisiana law of 1890, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson, “requiring all railway companies carrying passengers on their trains in this state, to provide equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races.” Subsequently it was widely used to separate African-Americans from the white population through a general policy of racial segregation. In 1954, in a unanimous ruling to end school segregation, the Supreme Court finally overturned the law (in Brown v. Board of Education).

separate wheat from chaff

separate wheat from chaff
Sort the valuable from the worthless, as in I hope we'll get a preview of the auction so we can separate the wheat from the chaff. This idiom alludes to the ancient practice of winnowing grain.