(v): move or cause to move back and forth
(v): move like a flail; thresh about
(v): move with a flapping motion
(v): beat the seeds out of a grain
(v): hit repeatedly
(v): give a thrashing to; beat hard
(v): give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression
...idyllic becomes fearful silence as I awake
to you already arisen, the stready thresh
and much nearer shadow of the quiet harvester.
- Peter Reading, Combine, from For the Municipality's Elderly, 1974