thresh

verb — 6 senses

thresh

verb

/θɹɛʃ/

Etymology

From Middle English thrasshen, thresche, threschen, threschyn, threshen, thresshen, tressyn, þreisshe, þresshe, from Old English þerscan, þrexan, from Proto-Germanic *þreskaną (“to thresh; to tread”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to rub, turn; to drill, pierce”). Doublet of thrash. Cognates Cognate with Dutch dorsen (“to thresh; to thrash”), German and Luxembourgish dreschen (“to thresh; to thrash”), Yiddish דרעשן (dreshn, “to thresh”), Danish tærske (“to thresh”), Faroese treskja (“to thresh”), Icelandic þreskja (“to thresh”), Norwegian Nynorsk treska, treske, treskja, treskje (“to thrash”), Swedish tröska (“to thresh”), Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌹𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌽 (þriskan, “to thresh”), Finnish rehkiä (“to drudge; to toil”); also Welsh taradr (“auger, wimble; awl, borer; drill”), Latin terō (“to rub or triturate; to wear away or wear out, consume; to tread; to press with a mill; to pass, spend”), Greek τρίβω (trívo, “to grate; to rub”), Albanian tjerr (“to spin”), Belarusian це́рці (cjérci, “to rub; to polish; to pinch; to grind”), Bulgarian три́я (tríja, “to rub; to chafe; to grind”), Czech třít (“to rub; to spawn”), Polish tarć, treć, trzeć, trzyć (“to rub; to shred; to cut; to chafe; to crush; to spawn”), Russian тере́ть (terétʹ, “to rub; to polish; to grind”), Serbo-Croatian тр̏ти, tȑti (“to rub; to cause friction; to scour; to break, crush”), Slovak trieť (“to rub”), Slovene treti (“to crack open; to rub”), Ukrainian те́рти (térty, “to rub; to scrub”), Armenian թուր (tʻur, “sword”), Sogdian ܕܣܦܪܛܪ (dsprtr, “hand towel”), Hittite 𒋻𒌑𒍣 (tar-ú-zi, “to perform a round dance, to dance in twisting manner”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B tärk- (“to allow, let; to let go”), Sanskrit तर्कु (tarku, “spindle”).

1

Agriculture, Business, Lifestyle To separate the grain from the straw or husks (chaff) by mechanical beating, with a flail or machinery, or by driving animals over them.

2

Agriculture, Business, Lifestyle Of a crop To be so separated, or to be capable of being so separated.

3

Literary To beat soundly, usually with some tool such as a stick or whip; to drub.

4

Literary To violently toss the limbs about.

  • The jay fell all lopsidedly and threshing, as though it were having a fit. The ground killed it.1967, J. A. Baker, The Peregrine, page 41:
5

Literary, Usually, With 'over' To belabor; to go over repeatedly, especially an argument.

6

Nautical, Transport To drive through adverse conditions (wind, waves).

Synonyms
thrash
Derived terms
threshable, threshel, thresher, thresherman, threshing, threshing sledge, threshold, thresh out, unthreshed

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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