Meanings
adjectivesievish (comparative more sievish, superlative most sievish)
comparative more sievish · superlative most sievish
- figurativelyrareLike a sieve: unretentive.
Perhaps I have a frighteningly sievish memory, but I’ll be damned if I can flip a folded chart back and forth and remember exactly what was on the other side.
1982, Ferenc Máté, Best Boats: To Build or Buy, Albatross Publishing House, →ISBN, page 242, →ISBN
Origin
Formed as sieve + -ish. Compare memory like a sieve.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
sievish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sievish
MLA
“sievish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sievish. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sievish,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sievish.
Source: sievish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.