thrash
/θraʃ
/verb [with object]
1Beat (a person or animal) repeatedly and violently with a stick or whip: she thrashed him across the head and shoulders...
- His future father-in-law came round to dinner one evening and attempted to thrash him with a horsewhip.
- Once home, his father, a freedom fighter, thrashed him mercilessly.
- She would beat her until her arm was tired and then thrash her on the floor.
Synonyms
hit, beat, flog, whip, horsewhip, scourge, lash, flagellate, flail, strap, birch, cane, belt, leather;
North American bullwhip
informal give someone a hiding, tan someone's hide, lather, paste, take a strap to, beat the living daylights out of
North American informal whale
archaic switch, stripe, thong
rare quirt
beating, flogging, whipping, horsewhipping, scourging, lashing, flagellation, caning, belting, leathering;
the strap, the birch, the cane, the belt;
North American bullwhipping
informal hiding, tanning, lathering, pasting, going-over
1.1Hit (something) hard and repeatedly: the wind screeched and the mast thrashed the deck...
- Those famous feet thrash the water so hard, the men that trail him say it is like being immersed in a washing machine.
- Is it better to be an isolated, depressed Western nuclear family housewife whose washing machine has a five year guarantee or an Indian woman who thrashes her washing on boulders in the river in the company of other women?
2 [no object] Move in a violent and convulsive way: he lay on the ground thrashing around in pain [with object]: she thrashed her arms, attempting to swim...
- A few hours later, he began thrashing about in a seizure so violent that he dislocated his shoulder.
- Convulsions took him over and he was thrashing, shaking, screaming, but he didn't know it.
- He hissed in my ear as I thrashed about in the tight circle of his arms.
Synonyms
flail, thresh, flounder, toss and turn, jerk, toss, squirm, writhe, twist, wriggle, wiggle, twitch
2.1 (thrash around) Struggle in a desperate or unfocused way to do something: two months of thrashing around on my own have produced nothing...
- The Government keeps thrashing around for that magic bullet, desperate to eliminate this crisis once and for all.
- Cricket attendances are in decline and the sport is thrashing around desperately for a solution.
- So it seems to me he should be out there, front and center, especially at time when the administration has been sort of thrashing around for a spokesman to put out there to talk about the domestic threat.
2.2 [no object, with adverbial of direction] informal Move in a fast or uncontrolled way: I wrench the steering wheel back and thrash on up the hill...
- As their fins thrashed through the water in fast pursuit, I saw the whale shark descend rapidly to the depths.
- It's nice to think of them picturing Father Christmas and his sleigh whooshing across frosty rooftops, as opposed to me thrashing my way around a soulless out-of-town shopping centre.
3 informal Defeat heavily in a contest or match: I thrashed Pete at cards [with object and complement]: Newcastle were thrashed 8-1 by the Czech team...
- After defeating Burnley and thrashing Gillingham 7-1, the young Blues will find it much tougher at Goodison Park.
- The students of St John's College bounced back from a heavy mid-week defeat to thrash Dunnington 6-0.
- Yorkshire have so far suffered crushing defeats by Surrey and Somerset while Kent were thrashed by Hampshire in their last match.
Synonyms
trounce, beat hollow, defeat utterly, rout, annihilate, triumph over, win a resounding victory over, be victorious over, crush, overwhelm, best, get the better of, worst, bring someone to their knees
informal lick, hammer, clobber, paste, pound, pulverize, crucify, demolish, destroy, drub, give someone a drubbing, cane, walk all over, wipe the floor with, give someone a hiding, take to the cleaners, blow someone out of the water, make mincemeat of, murder, massacre, slaughter, flatten, turn inside out, tank
British informal stuff, marmalize
North American informal blow out, cream, shellac, skunk, slam
US informal own
crushing defeat, overwhelming defeat, beating, trouncing, walloping, thumping, battering, rout
informal hiding, licking, pasting, caning, going-over, drubbing, hammering, pounding, clobbering, demolition, slaughter, massacre, annihilation
North American informal shellacking
noun
1 [usually in singular] A violent or noisy movement of beating or thrashing: the thrash of the waves...
- It was a brief but animated struggle, the flex of the rod and the 6-pound-test line absorbing the runs, thrashes and splashes of the creature that had been hiding in ambush in the roots of the cypress tree.
1.1 informal A fast and exciting motor race or other sporting event: crews assembled in Richmond town square to tackle the 120-mile thrash
2British informal A party, especially a loud or lavish one: Henry’s charity ball had been one hell of a thrash...
- Meanwhile the players dressed to thrill when they turned out for their thrash at the hotel following their 1-0 win.
3A short, fast, loud piece or passage of rock music: after all those twelve-bar thrashes, my fingers were blistered...
- The best stuff is from the early seventies, when the murky, basic production and tight rhythm section set up a selection of exciting guitar thrashes.
- There are some explosive stop-start punky thrashes that sound like Pavement at warp-speed.
3.1 (also thrash metal) [mass noun] A style of fast, loud, harsh-sounding rock music, combining elements of punk and heavy metal: [as modifier]: a grungy thrash band...
- There are also elements of thrash metal, cock rock and pop punk.
- It involves him playing loud thrash metal music late at night, or joining a group of Dublin youngsters in a joy-riding escapade.
- Neither is formal beauty a universally shared musical value, as much as film music or thrash metal are deliberately ugly.
Phrasal verbs
thrash something out
Origin
Old English, variant of thresh (an early sense). Current senses of the noun date from the mid 19th century.
Thrash and thresh are variant forms of the same Old English word. The Germanic root sense was probably ‘to tramp with the feet’. Thrash was used for treading out corn by men or oxen; when beating with a flail replaced treading, thresh was restricted to producing grain, and thrash extended to more generalized notions of knocking, beating, and striking. In threshold (Old English) the first element is related to thresh in the Germanic sense ‘tread’, but the origin of the second element remains unknown.