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"fanned and winnowed"
Metaphor
Act 5,
Scene 2
Lines 141-149

An explanation of the metaphorical phrase, “fanned and winnowed” in Act 5, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s Hamlet.

Horatio

This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.    

Hamlet

He did comply with his dug before he sucked it.
Thus has he — and many more of the same bevy that I
know the drossy age dotes on — only got the tune of the time
and outward habit of encounter, a kind of yeasty
collection, which carries them through and through
the most fanned and winnowed opinions.
And do but blow them to their trials, the bubbles are out.

Horatio   

You will lose this wager, my lord. 

To “fan and winnow” means to separate the wheat from the chaff. As the wheat falls through the air, it is fanned to blow away the lighter chaff from the wheat grains. Hamlet uses this metaphor to say that Osric has picked up enough pretentious expressions and fancy manners to get him through most situations in which someone is trying to judge whether he has real class. But in fact, Osric’s qualities are no more substantial than the foam on a mug of beer (“yeasty collection”)—if you put them to the test by blowing on them, the bubbles will burst.