thrash

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to beat violently or move about wildly

   The fish began to thrash the moment it was lifted from the net.

Simplified etymology

Thrash and thresh are variants of the same Old English word, probably from a Germanic root meaning “to tramp with the feet.” Thrash was used for treading out corn by men or oxen; when beating with a flail replaced treading, thresh became restricted to producing grain, while thrash developed broader senses of knocking, beating, and striking.

A variant of thresh, from Old English therscan ('to beat grain, thresh'), from Proto-Germanic *threskana, from the Proto-Indo-European root *tere- ('to rub, turn').

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary