An agricultural implement used in threshing. Both uses are in John the Baptist's preaching (Matthew 3:12, Luke 3:17), where he declares that the Coming One has his winnowing fork in hand to thoroughly clear his threshing floor—gathering wheat into the barn and burning chaff with unquenchable fire. The image is of eschatological judgment: Christ will separate the righteous from the wicked as decisively as a farmer separates grain from chaff.