Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To beat the stems and husks of (grain or cereal plants) with a machine or flail to separate the grains or seeds from the straw.
  • intransitive verb To separate (grains or seeds) in this manner.
  • intransitive verb To discuss or examine (an issue, for example) repeatedly.
  • intransitive verb To beat severely; thrash.
  • intransitive verb To use a machine or flail to separate grain or seeds from straw.
  • intransitive verb To thrash about; toss.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In wire-drawing, to raise (a wire rod or bar of small section) high in the air and throw it heavily against a flat smooth plate on the ground in order to straighten it or to loosen the scale and dirt.
  • To beat out or separate the grain or seeds from, by means of a flail or a threshing-machine, or by treading with oxen: in this sense commonly thresh.
  • To beat soundly, as with a stick or whip; drub; hence, to beat in any way: in this sense commonly thrash.
  • To practise threshing; beat out grain from straw with a flail or a threshing-machine: in this sense commonly thresh.
  • To beat about; labor; drudge; toil.
  • To throw one's self about; toss to and fro: usually with about: in this sense commonly thrash.
  • noun See thrash.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb Same as thrash.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, agriculture To separate the grain from the straw or husks by mechanical beating, with a flail or machinery.
  • verb transitive, literary To beat soundly, usually with some tool such as a stick or whip; to drub.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb give a thrashing to; beat hard
  • verb move like a flail; thresh about
  • verb beat the seeds out of a grain
  • verb move or stir about violently

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English thresshen, from Old English therscan; see terə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English þrescan.

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Examples

Comments

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  • ...idyllic becomes fearful silence as I awake

    to you already arisen, the stready thresh

    and much nearer shadow of the quiet harvester.

    - Peter Reading, Combine, from For the Municipality's Elderly, 1974

    June 22, 2008