seed cleaner
1
4.5
- noun
- Specialized
:
limpiadora de semillas
- Farmers use a seed cleaner to prepare their crops.
Examples
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A modern seed cleaner can process large quantities of grain quickly and efficiently.
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After running the wheat through the seed cleaner, most debris and broken seeds were removed.
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The farmer invested in a new seed cleaner to improve the quality of his grain harvest.
-
The seed cleaner operates efficiently.
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The farmer invested in a new seed cleaner to improve the quality of his harvest.
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Using a seed cleaner helps ensure that only the best seeds are used for planting.
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Before selling his grain, he ran it through the seed cleaner to remove any impurities.
Synonyms
A machine that removes dirt and small stones from grain before storage or sale
A machine that removes the outer covering from seeds or grains
A machine that separates whole grains from broken ones using a turning cylinder with small pockets
How Thorough
- Specialized
1
4.5
- Specialized
18
2.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
seed + cleaner
The compound's meaning is directly compositional: a 'seed cleaner' is literally a cleaner (device or agent that removes dirt) for seeds. This noun+noun combination and the agent/ instrument sense of 'cleaner' are cross-linguistically common and easily inferable by a B1 learner who knows the constituents.
Etymology
The name seed cleaner comes from farming and shows what it does. Farmers first used sieves and wind to separate good seed from dirt, straw and broken pieces, so a machine that did this was called a cleaner of seeds. That's why seed cleaner today means a machine that 'removes impurities' from seeds.