thresh
thresh Lexical Profile
thresh Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To separate grain or seeds from the husks and straw of a harvested plant, traditionally by beating with a flail or using a mechanical harvester.
"Before modern combine harvesters were invented, farmhands had to thresh the wheat by hand on the barn floor."
To move the limbs or body around violently or spasmodically; to thrash.
"The hooked marlin began to thresh wildly at the surface of the water."
• noun
An act or operation of separating grain or seeds from the husks and straw.
"The farmers gathered in the barn to complete the autumn thresh before the first frost arrived."
Word Nuance & Usage
Historically the same word as "thrash," modern English generally restricts "thresh" to the literal agricultural separation of grain from chaff, whereas "thrash" is preferred for beating, defeating, or moving violently.
• Rhymes for thresh
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English þerscan ("to beat out grain, tread, strike"), derived from Proto-Germanic *þreskaną, from which the variant "thrash" later diverged in the 16th century.