Sieve

The term is best used when taunting a goaltender. The most common forms of usage are: "Hey Cechmanek, you're a fucking sieve who couldn't keep a beach ball out of the net!" or "Sieve! Sieve! Sieve! Sieve! Sieve! (repeat ad nauseam)" The latter of the two examples is most effective after a goaltender lets in a weak goal, especially when chanted by a whole section of drunken fans.

The term is thought to have originated from the saying "like water through a sieve," but its exact etymology likely will remain a mystery.

Sieve (?), n. [OE. sive, AS. sife; akin to D. zeef, zift, OHG. sib, G. sieb. &root;151a. Cf. Sift.]

1.

A utensil for separating the finer and coarser parts of a pulverized or granulated substance from each other. It consist of a vessel, usually shallow, with the bottom perforated, or made of hair, wire, or the like, woven in meshes.

Chaucer.

2.

A kind of coarse basket.

Simmonds.

Sieve cells Bot., cribriform cells. See under Cribriform.

© Webster 1913.