thresher
thresher Lexical Profile
thresher Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A farm machine or piece of agricultural equipment used to separate grain seeds from the stalks and husks.
"Before the invention of the mechanical thresher, farmers had to beat harvested wheat by hand using wooden flails."
Any of three species of large pelagic sharks of the family Alopiidae, found in temperate and tropical oceans worldwide and distinguished by a scythe-like upper tail fin nearly as long as the body, used to stun prey.
"The marine biologists observed a thresher whipping its elongated tail through a dense school of sardines."
A farm laborer who separates grain from its husks and straw, historically by beating it with a hand flail or operating a threshing machine.
"During the autumn harvest, the landowner hired a team of seasonal threshers to process the barley crop."
• Rhymes for thresher
Word Origin & Etymology
From Middle English thresshere, derived from the Old English verb þerscan ('to beat, tread, or thresh grain') combined with the agentive suffix -er. The shark is so named because it uses its exceptionally long tail fin to beat the water and stun schools of fish in a motion resembling a worker wielding a flail.