Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Thrash

Thrash (thrăsh), Thresh (thrĕsh), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Thrashed; p. pr. & vb. n. Thrashing.] [OE. þreschen, þreshen, to beat, AS. þerscan, þrescan; akin to D. dorschen, OD. derschen, G. dreschen, OHG. dreskan, Icel. þreskja, Sw. tröska, Dan. tærske, Goth. þriskan, Lith. traszketi to rattle, Russ. treskate to burst, crackle, tresk' a crash, OSlav. troska a stroke of lighting. Cf. Thresh.] 1. To beat out grain from, as straw or husks; to beat the straw or husk of (grain) with a flail; to beat off, as the kernels of grain; as, to thrash wheat, rye, or oats; to thrash over the old straw.

The wheat was reaped, thrashed, and winnowed by machines. H. Spencer.

2. To beat soundly, as with a stick or whip; to drub.

Thrash, Thresh, v. t. 1. To practice thrashing grain or the like; to perform the business of beating grain from straw; as, a man who thrashes well.

2. Hence, to labor; to toil; also, to move violently.

I rather would be Mævius, thrash for rhymes, Like his, the scorn and scandal of the times. Dryden.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.