thresh

/θrɛʃ/

/θrɛʃ/

Other forms: threshing; threshed; threshes

To thresh is to harvest seeds from grain by beating or crushing it. Before the invention of machines to do this task, it took a huge amount of time to thresh grain by hand.

To make this tedious task go faster, farmers used to thresh in groups, throwing threshing bees where neighbors worked together. Special sticks called flails were used to beat the seeds out of the grain, and it took about an hour to thresh a bushel of wheat. The threshing machine was invented in the late 1700s, and today most farmers thresh using a combine harvester, which harvests and threshes the grain right in the field.

Definitions of thresh

1. verb

   beat the seeds out of a grain
   synonyms: thrash

   type of:

   beat

   hit repeatedly
2. verb

   give a thrashing to; beat hard
   synonyms: flail, lam, thrash

   annihilate, bat, clobber, cream, drub, lick, thrash

   beat thoroughly and conclusively in a competition or fight

   type of:

   beat, beat up, work over

   give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression
3. verb

   move or stir about violently
   synonyms: convulse, jactitate, slash, thrash, thrash about, thresh about, toss

   types:

   whip

   thrash about flexibly in the manner of a whiplash

   type of:

   agitate, shake

   move or cause to move back and forth
4. verb

   move like a flail; thresh about
   synonyms: flail

   type of:

   beat, flap

   move with a flapping motion