Thresh
/θɹɛʃ/ verb
verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 To separate the grain from the straw or husks (chaff) by mechanical beating, with a flail or machinery, or by driving animals over them. transitive
- 2 give a thrashing to; beat hard wordnet
- 3 To beat soundly, usually with some tool such as a stick or whip; to drub. literary, transitive
- 4 beat the seeds out of a grain wordnet
- 5 To violently toss the limbs about. intransitive, literary
"The jay fell all lopsidedly and threshing, as though it were having a fit. The ground killed it."
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- 6 move or stir about violently wordnet
- 7 move like a flail; thresh about wordnet
Example
More examples"If ploughing were a matter of gazing, anyone could thresh wheat."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *terh₁-der.? Proto-Germanic *þreskaną Old English þrescan Middle English threschen English thresh From Middle English thresshen, threshen, threschen, from Old English þrescan, from Proto-Germanic *þreskaną. Compare West Frisian terskje, Dutch dorsen, Low German dörschen, German dreschen, Danish tærske, Swedish tröska, Yiddish דרעשן (dreshn). Doublet of thrash.