thresher

UK: /ˈθrɛʃə/ US: (thresh′ər)

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

thresh•er  (thresh′ər), n. 

1. a person or thing that threshes.
2. Fish Also, thrasher. Also called thresh′er shark′. a large shark of the genus Alopias, esp. A. vulpinus, which threshes the water with its long tail to drive together the small fish on which it feeds.

• Middle English thressher. See thresh, -er¹ 1350–1400

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

thresher / ˈθrɛʃə/ noun

1. a person who threshes
2. short for threshing machine
3. Also called: thrasher, thresher shark any of various large sharks of the genus Alopias, esp A. vulpinus, occurring in tropical and temperate seas: family Alopiidae. They have a very long whiplike tail with which they are thought to round up the small fish on which they feed

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

thresh /θrɛʃ/   v. 

1. to separate the grain from (a cereal plant), as by beating with a tool: [~ + object]
   to thresh the wheat.
   [no object]
   spent all day in the fields threshing.

n. [countable]

2. the act of threshing.

Sometimes, thrash /θræʃ/ . thresh•er, n. [countable]

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

thresh (thresh),  v.t. 

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.

v.i. 

3. to thresh wheat, grain, etc.
4. to deliver blows as if with a flail.
5. thresh out or over. See thrash (def. 8).

n. 

6. the act of threshing.

Also, thrash. 

• bef. 900; Middle English threschen, thresshen, Old English threscan; cognate with German dreschen, Gothic thriskan; akin to Dutch dorsen, Old Norse thriskja