What does "bolting" mean?

Bolting: A sifting, as of flour or meal.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Law) A private arguing of cases for practice by students, as in the Inns of Court. [Obs.] Bolting cloth, wire, hair, silk, or other sieve cloth of different degrees of fineness; -- used by millers for sifting flour. McElrath. -- Bolting hutch, a bin or tub for the bolted flour or meal; (fig.) a receptacle.

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