thresh

verb

ˈthresh  ˈthrash 

threshed; threshing; threshes

transitive verb

1

: to separate seed from (a harvested plant) mechanically

also : to separate (seed) in this way

2

: thrash sense 3

3

: to strike repeatedly

intransitive verb

1

: to thresh grain

2

a

: thrash sense 2

b

: thrash sense 1

Synonyms

• fiddle
• fidget
• jerk
• jig
• jiggle
• squiggle
• squirm
• thrash
• toss
• twist
• twitch
• wiggle
• wriggle
• writhe

Examples of thresh in a Sentence

threshing and harvesting at the same time

the poor dog threshed against his chain

Recent Examples on the Web

On the precipice For all their importance to the smooth running of nature’s threshing machine, vultures themselves are being mowed under at an alarming rate. —Natalie Angier, New York Times, 12 Nov. 2023

The hurricane with no name threshed across the Atlantic coast in mid-September 1713, ripping at tobacco crops and sending panicked colonists inland, where the storm's destructive power found them. —oregonlive, 5 Sep. 2019

The rice at the top of the stalks in the paddies was hard and yellow, ready to be cut, threshed and dried in the sun. —New York Times, 8 Aug. 2019

Vintage tractors, trucks, cars and motorcycles will be on display, and there will be a Parade of Power, tractor pulls and demonstrations of threshing, horse plowing, butter churning, blacksmithing and more. —Phil Marty, chicagotribune.com, 29 July 2019

Subrat Chandra Gayen, another resident of Joymoni, said nearly 80 percent of families have had to give up on rice farming, which once provided food and an income for most people in the area, including women who sowed, harvested, and threshed it. —Manipadma Jena, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 Mar. 2018

In the San Joaquin Valley, beans are harvested by a machine called Big Bertha, which can pick and thresh fifty thousand pounds a day. —Junot Díaz, The New Yorker, 17 Apr. 2018

Deuteronomy 25:4 prohibits the muzzling of an ox that is threshing. —Karen Swallow Prior, Washington Post, 29 Jan. 2018

Sometimes scenes of hunting, netting fish, herding and butchering animals, threshing grain and other farming activities were carved or painted directly onto tomb walls, as in the exquisite murals at the ancient burial grounds at Saqqara near Cairo. —Salima Ikram, Smithsonian, 3 Feb. 2017

Word History

Etymology

Middle English thresshen, from Old English threscan; akin to Old High German dreskan to thresh

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Rhymes for thresh

• creche
• flesh
• fresh
• lesch
• mesh
• resh
• afresh
• horseflesh
• refresh
• gilgamesh

Kids Definition

thresh

verb

ˈthrash 

ˈthresh

1

: to separate seed from a harvested plant especially by using a machine or tool

thresh wheat

2

: thrash sense 4

thresh over a problem

3

: thrash sense 3

threshed about in bed