thrash

present singular third person thrashes · participle present thrashing · participle past thrashed · past thrashed

1. To beat mercilessly.

   But in the town it was well known, when they got home at night, their fat and psychopathic wives would thrash them within inches of their lives.

   1979 November 30, Roger Waters, “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”, in The Wall, performed by Pink Floyd

   1 more example

   The rural Midland & Great Northern backwaters from Norfolk to Leicester closed in February 1959 before they could be used there, and thrashing them on the GN main line instead resulted in a memorably poor ride and rattling windows, caused by vibration from their engines and suspect suspension.

   2023 February 22, Howard Johnston, “Southern '313s': is the end now in sight?”, in RAIL, number 977, page 42

2. To defeat utterly.

   Pardew made five changes to the side that thrashed West Ham 5-0 on Wednesday - with players such as James Perch and Alan Smith given the chance to underline their case for a regular starting berth.

   2011 January 8, Paul Fletcher, “Stevenage 3 - 1 Newcastle”, in BBC

3. To thresh.
4. To move about wildly or violently; to flail; to labour.

   I rather would be Maevius, thrash for rhymes, / Like his, the scorn and scandal of the times.

   c. 1690, Juvenal, “The Tenth Satire of Juvenal”, in John Dryden, transl., John Dryden: The Major Works, Oxford University Press, published 1987, page 364

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   As performers, we girls have our hair. That's the real thing guys want to see. They love to see the long hair move. They want you to thrash it.

   2023, Britney Spears, The Woman in Me, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN

5. computingTo extensively test a software system, giving a program various inputs and observing the behavior and outputs that result.
6. computingIn computer architecture, to cause or undergo poor performance of a virtual memory (or paging) system.

plural thrashes

1. countableA beat or blow; the sound of beating.

   As he reeled on wide-braced legs, sobbing for breath, the jungle and the moon swimming bloodily to his sight, the thrash of bat-wings was loud in his ears.

   1934 May, Robert E. Howard, “Queen of the Black Coast”, in Weird Tales

   2 more examples

   Even among friends at the dinner-table he talked as though he were denouncing them, or someone else, on a platform; he measured his phrases, built his sentences, cumulated his effects, and pounded his opponents, real or imagined. His humor was glow, like iron at dull heat; his blow was elementary, like the thrash of a whale.

   1918, Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams

   Spinning full-circle, the aircraft careered out of control. It bounced twice on the waves, each time managing to free itself from the engulfing spray with vigorous thrashes of its one good wing.

   2016, Clark Nida, The Titan Kiss

2. uncountablerail transportThe roar and smoke of a particularly powerful diesel engine.

   For the first time ever I will get to ride behind a class 37, a growler, nickname coined simply from the sound it makes, the epitome of thrash.

   2022 October 27, Francis Bourgeois, The Trainspotter's Notebook: The unmissable book from TikTok's trainspotting sensation, Random House, →ISBN

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   The private CHENGDE STEELWORKS Class SY / JS 2-8-2 total thrash, some double-heading/double-banking, then to YEBAISHOU where Class QJ 2-10-2 operate freight & some passenger China Rail services

   1998, The Railway Magazine

   'Forty bashers' are those whose aim in life is to travel behind a Class Forty diesel electric, and their communal exuberance is often expressed in controlled arm movements out of the carriage windows (known as 'windmilling') usually in the course of a 'hellfire thrash' (when the locomotive is producing a characteristic sound at high speed and probably throwing out characteristic clag).

   2006, Sam Elkington, Ian Jones, Lesley Lawrence, Serious Leisure: Extensions and Applications

3. abbreviationellipsisuncountableentertainmentEllipsis of thrash metal.
4. countableslangA wild party.

   1 more example

   His housekeeper Maria, however, takes a very dim view of all his revellry, and finally after a particularly boisterous thrash she puts her foot down. When the last of the louts disappears down the drive in his Aston Martin, all Willy can think about is crashing out in his four-poster. But Maria won't let him into his room until ALL the discarded glasses and bottles have been cleared away.

   1984, Software Projects, Jet Set Willy (video game's printed instructions)

plural Thrashes

1. A surname.