Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To strike or beat, especially repeatedly with a flail or stick. synonym: beat.
  • intransitive verb To strike violently; batter.
  • intransitive verb To swing or strike in a manner suggesting the action of a flail.
  • intransitive verb To defeat soundly or decisively.
  • intransitive verb To thresh (grain).
  • intransitive verb To sail (a boat) against opposing winds or tides.
  • intransitive verb To move wildly or violently.
  • intransitive verb To strike or flail.
  • intransitive verb To thresh.
  • intransitive verb To sail against opposing tides or winds.
  • noun The act or an instance of thrashing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • See thresh.
  • noun A rush.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To practice thrashing grain or the like; to perform the business of beating grain from straw.
  • transitive verb Hence, to labor; to toil; also, to move violently.
  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb To beat soundly, as with a stick or whip; to drub.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To beat mercilessly.
  • verb To defeat utterly.
  • verb To thresh.
  • verb To move about wildly or violently; to flail.
  • verb software To extensively test a software system, giving a program various inputs and observing the behavior and outputs that result.
  • verb computing In computer architecture, to cause poor performance of a virtual memory (or paging) system.
  • noun A beat or blow; the sound of beating.
  • noun music A particularly aggressive and intense form of heavy metal music with a focus on speed, technical precision, and alternate picking.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb beat so fast that (the heart's) output starts dropping until (it) does not manage to pump out blood at all
  • verb move data into and out of core rather than performing useful computation
  • verb dance the slam dance
  • verb give a thrashing to; beat hard
  • verb move or stir about violently
  • verb beat thoroughly and conclusively in a competition or fight
  • noun a swimming kick used while treading water
  • verb beat the seeds out of a grain

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Variant of thresh.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Proto-Germanic *þreskanan, whence also Old High German dreskan, Old Norse þreskja

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Examples

  • So, did those of us who are truly familiar with Rogers 'work really expect him to "thrash" Nagin?

    Your Right Hand Thief 2008

  • So, did those of us who are truly familiar with Rogers 'work really expect him to "thrash" Nagin?

    Archive 2008-03-01 2008

  • I personally found the debate disappointing - I believe when time is limited you need to zero in on one or two core issues and then 'thrash' it backwards and forwards, with some approach to achieving substantial clarity on the subject in question.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008

  • I personally found the debate disappointing - I believe when time is limited you need to zero in on one or two core issues and then 'thrash' it backwards and forwards, with some approach to achieving substantial clarity on the subject in question.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008

  • When I come back we'll kind of thrash things out and see what's to be done.

    Scattergood Baines Clarence Budington Kelland 1922

  • 1981 In San Francisco's Bay Area, another "metal revolution" brews with the development of a fast, loud, lean sound known as thrash metal.

    unknown title 2009

  • All he asked was that his grandson should "thrash" somebody, and he could not be made to understand that the modern drama of divorce is sometimes cast without a Lovelace.

    The Custom of the Country Edith Wharton 1899

  • They say that expression is a need of the human heart; and I am also convinced that in many hearts there is a very strong desire at times to "thrash" some one.

    Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 05 Little Journeys to the Homes of English Authors Elbert Hubbard 1885

  • He became very angry with the President, said that that officer had a cowardly fear of Spain and Great Britain, and declared that he would go to Washington to "thrash" the President.

    Stories Of Georgia Joel Chandler Harris 1878

  • He was obliged to declare on the playground the next day, that he would "thrash" any boy that said anything about milkmaids.

    The Hoosier School-boy Edward Eggleston 1869

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