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

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

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

Traditionally in Vietnam, people would grow their own rice and thresh it, some boiling it in a clay or metal pot over a fire of leftover rice straw.

From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2021

In the absence of narrative tension, then, we are left with this thresh of rival perspectives, all generously delivered in the same third-person omniscient.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 13, 2017

I left word with the maid that we were on no account to be disturbed and we sat down to thresh the whole thing out.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 13, 2017

Q: Does he thresh things out with you?

From US News ● Jun. 5, 2015

Then, we came and gathered up what remained of the paddy and took it away to thresh and winnow.

From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya

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

The cow draws the plow and the harrow, and threshes the grain, but usury makes property bring all needed material good without effort on the part of the owner.

From Usury A Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View by Calvin Elliott

Even with a decline of that magnitude, that would still leave about 20 million tonnes needing to be threshed and transported from July.

From Reuters ● May 25, 2022

He was aw-shucks Chuck, and he threshed most of his challengers with ease, often with ads that showed him tugging two mowers across his farm yard in stereo.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 4, 2021

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

Embodying ambient sensations — clopping horse hooves, rhythmic hammer swings, pungent scents of freshly threshed grain — Mr. Skogsbergh’s vivid photographs, like flies on a wall, likewise bear witness to storied lives.

From New York Times ● Sep. 19, 2014

I had laid in a huge store of gunnysacks, hoping to fill them all with the threshed grain.

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson

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

“I guess the new steel Case Agitator threshing machine.”

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck