From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Thrash \Thrash\, Thresh \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.
[1913 Webster]
2. Hence, to labor; to toil; also, to move violently.
[1913 Webster]
I rather would be Maevius, thrash for rhymes,
Like his, the scorn and scandal of the times.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Thrash \Thrash\, Thresh \Thresh\, v. t. [imp. & p. p.
Thrashed; p. pr. & vb. n. Thrashing.] [OE.
[thorn]reschen, [thorn]reshen, to beat, AS. [thorn]erscan,
[thorn]rescan; akin to D. dorschen, OD. derschen, G.
dreschen, OHG. dreskan, Icel. [thorn]reskja, Sw. tr["o]ska,
Dan. t[ae]rske, Goth. [thorn]riskan, 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.
[1913 Webster]
The wheat was reaped, thrashed, and winnowed by
machines. --H. Spencer.
[1913 Webster]
2. To beat soundly, as with a stick or whip; to drub.
[1913 Webster] Thrash
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
thrash
n 1: a swimming kick used while treading water
v 1: give a thrashing to; beat hard [syn: thrash, thresh,
lam, flail]
2: move or stir about violently; "The feverish patient thrashed
around in his bed" [syn: convulse, thresh, {thresh
about}, thrash, thrash about, slash, toss,
jactitate]
3: dance the slam dance [syn: slam dance, slam, mosh,
thrash]
4: beat so fast that (the heart's) output starts dropping until
(it) does not manage to pump out blood at all
5: move data into and out of core rather than performing useful
computation; "The system is thrashing again!"
6: beat the seeds out of a grain [syn: thrash, thresh]
7: beat thoroughly and conclusively in a competition or fight;
"We licked the other team on Sunday!" [syn: cream, bat,
clobber, drub, thrash, lick]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008) [foldoc]:
thrash
thrashing
To move wildly or violently, without accomplishing anything
useful. Paging or swapping systems that are overloaded
waste most of their time moving data into and out of core
(rather than performing useful computation) and are therefore
said to thrash. Thrashing can also occur in a cache due to
cache conflict or in a multiprocessor (see ping-pong).
Someone who keeps changing his mind (especially about what to
work on next) is said to be thrashing. A person frantically
trying to execute too many tasks at once (and not spending
enough time on any single task) may also be described as
thrashing.
Compare multitask.
[Jargon File]
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
thrash
vi.
To move wildly or violently, without accomplishing anything useful.
Paging or swapping systems that are overloaded waste most of their
time moving data into and out of core (rather than performing useful
computation) and are therefore said to thrash. Someone who keeps
changing his mind (esp. about what to work on next) is said to be
thrashing. A person frantically trying to execute too many tasks at
once (and not spending enough time on any single task) may also be
described as thrashing. Compare multitask.