At all times He used the winnowing fan to blow away the chaff of the great crowds that followed Him, and leave the few immovably resolute souls.
"The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I"
Marcus Dods
And yet the things that he had told her were not altogether a surprise; she had not known him for seven years without seeing signs of some other temper and spirit-controlled indeed, but nevertheless there, and very different from the pleasant, happy Peter who played with the Tressiter children and dared to chaff Mrs. Brockett.
"Fortitude"
Hugh Walpole
They would reject nothing attributed to him; thinking a bushel of chaff well worth housing if it might yield one genuine grain.
"Holbein"
Beatrice Fortescue