thrash

Etymology

From Middle English thrasshen, a dialectal variant of thresshen, threshen (whence the modern English thresh), from Old English þrescan, from Proto-Germanic *þreskaną, whence also Old High German dreskan, Old Norse þreskja.

verb

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. November 30, 1979, Roger Waters, “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”, in The Wall
   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. February 22 2023, 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. January 8, 2011, 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
5. (software) To extensively test a software system, giving a program various inputs and observing the behavior and outputs that result.
6. (computing) In computer architecture, to cause or undergo poor performance of a virtual memory (or paging) system.

noun

1. (countable) A beat or blow; the sound of beating.
   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
   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
   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. (music, uncountable) thrash metal