thresh

American  

[thresh] / θrɛʃ /

verb (used with object)

• threshes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• threshed,
  past participle,  past
• threshing
  present participle

1. to separate the grain or seeds from (a cereal plant or the like) by some mechanical means, as by beating with a flail or by the action of a threshing machine.

2. to beat as if with a flail.

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verb (used without object)

• threshes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• threshed,
  past participle,  past
• threshing
  present participle

1. to thresh wheat, grain, etc.

2. to deliver blows as if with a flail.

noun

1. the act of threshing.

verb phrase

1. thresh out / over. thrash.

thresh British  

/ θrɛʃ /

verb

1. to beat or rub stalks of ripe corn or a similar crop either with a hand implement or a machine to separate the grain from the husks and straw

2. (tr) to beat or strike

3. to toss and turn; thrash

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noun

1. the act of threshing

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• rethresh
  verb (used with object)
• unthreshed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• threshing
  present
• threshed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• thresh
  simple
• threshes
  simple
• have threshed
  perfect
• has threshed
  perfect
• am threshing
  progressive
• are threshing
  progressive
• is threshing
  progressive
• have been threshing
  perfect progressive
• has been threshing
  perfect progressive

Past

• threshed
  simple
• had threshed
  perfect
• was threshing
  progressive
• were threshing
  progressive
• had been threshing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will thresh
  simple
• will have threshed
  perfect
• will be threshing
  progressive
• will have been threshing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of thresh

before 900; Middle English threschen, thresshen, Old English threscan; cognate with German dreschen, Gothic thriskan; akin to Dutch dorsen, Old Norse thriskja

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Explanation

To thresh is to harvest seeds from grain by beating or crushing it. Before the invention of machines to do this task, it took a huge amount of time to thresh grain by hand. To make this tedious task go faster, farmers used to thresh in groups, throwing threshing bees where neighbors worked together. Special sticks called flails were used to beat the seeds out of the grain, and it took about an hour to thresh a bushel of wheat. The threshing machine was invented in the late 1700s, and today most farmers thresh using a combine harvester, which harvests and threshes the grain right in the field.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

thresh threshes threshed threshing

We saw a pair of finger blades that Eristavi had used to thresh grain.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 22, 2019

Everywhere we went, we stopped to help women pick chiles or men thresh rice.

From New York Times ● Dec. 16, 2015

Q: Does he thresh things out with you?

From US News ● Jun. 5, 2015

Winter brought the people indoors to weave yarn into fabric, sew clothing, thresh grain, and keep the fires going.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 30, 2014

They were going to the next place where neighbors had stacked their wheat and wanted the machines to thresh it.

From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder

On a crisp, bright afternoon in early October, Ethan watched his father weld their broken 1980s combine harvester head, which cuts and threshes corn.

From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2021

In the cab more than half a dozen screens are pumping out data as the machine reaps, threshes and winnows.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2018

Collaborating with women farmers in Niger, Trimble designed a compact, solar-powered device that threshes and winnows pearl millet, allowing more daily meals to be produced without such a physical toll.

From National Geographic ● Sep. 18, 2017

Reality TV is shiny, loopy, and fun, and it retains some of these qualities even when it is being excoriated as a hideous machine that threshes smart and decent people in its maw.

From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2015

A short thickly-built tale arises and threshes his arms about.

From Triumph of the Egg, and Other Stories by Sherwood Anderson

Ukraine sowed a total of 6.5 million hectares of winter wheat for its 2022 crop, but only 5 million hectares could be threshed by farmers on government-controlled territory.

From Reuters ● Jun. 14, 2022

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.

From New York Times ● Aug. 8, 2019

One of McCormick’s rivals created the first combine, or machine that reaped and threshed in a single process, but his invention was not perfected until after the Civil War.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018

He had a demonic sense of humor on "Windowlicker," played tender Satie-indebted piano pieces and threshed elements of jungle, techno, ambient and just about everything else made on synthesizers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2014

Along the road I saw women winnowing baskets of threshed grain in the wind, the clouds of chaff flying off in the breeze.

From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan

A short walk away, a threshing machine spews clouds of dust and chaff as wheat pours out in a steady stream, rattling into worn brown sacks at farmers' feet.

From Barron's ● May 15, 2026

Mechanization soon followed, with threshing machines and combine harvesters leaving less behind for gleaners to collect.

From Salon ● Jan. 28, 2025

Farmers have already completed the 2023 wheat harvest, threshing 21.94 million metric tons.

From Reuters ● Aug. 29, 2023

She downloaded the book’s audio version and listened to it as she drove her 25-ton John Deere combine through her fields, reaping, threshing and winnowing hundreds of bushels.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 13, 2023

Sometimes he even sold it standing in the field to save himself the trouble of harvesting and threshing to get a little ready cash.

From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

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