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Thresh   Listen
verb
Thresh, Thrash  v. t.  (past & past part. thrashed; pres. part. thrashing)  
1.
To beat out grain from, as straw or husks; to beat the straw or husk of (grain) with a flail; to beat off, as the kernels of grain; as, to thrash wheat, rye, or oats; to thrash over the old straw. "The wheat was reaped, thrashed, and winnowed by machines."
2.
To beat soundly, as with a stick or whip; to drub.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Thresh" Quotes from Famous Books



... hammer and a "make-believe" curtain. No!—hammer away, like Charles Martel; "fillip me with a three-man beetle;" be to me a malleus hereticorum; come like Spenser's Talus—an iron man with an iron flail, and thresh out the straw of my logic; rack me; put me to the question; get me down; jump upon me; kick me; throttle me; put an end to me in any way ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... stopcocks, twenty pounds of steam, etc.; mixing up all this ridiculous stuff with yearling-calves, turnips, horse-carts, oil- cake, wool, bullocks, beans, and sheep, and other vital things and interests, which forty centuries have looked upon with reverence! To plough, thresh, cut turnips, grind corn, and pump water for ...
— A Walk from London to John O'Groat's • Elihu Burritt

... is a hint that you don't need my company any longer," retorted Grosvenor. "All right, old chap, pray don't apologise. I know I'm a bit of a duffer in such matters as this, so I'll leave you to thresh it out alone, and turn in for a ...
— The Adventures of Dick Maitland - A Tale of Unknown Africa • Harry Collingwood

... three-and-twenty, I was just about as green as young, and took it into my head to get married, having persuaded myself that I was in love, and that, if I did not, I should not live long. Polly Crane was a nice girl, she could hoe corn, thresh grain, break fractious colts, or shoot a bear, just as well as I could myself. She was just the one for me, and we had got everything all fixed to be married, when a chap came travelling up there, (making mischief I thought) ...
— The American Family Robinson - or, The Adventures of a Family lost in the Great Desert of the West • D. W. Belisle

... bones, To risk their breaking? I have half a mind To thresh you from your motley ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Francesca da Rimini • George Henry Boker

... hurrying down the street with an umbrella in one hand and Wimble in the other. From the post-office comes Postmaster Flint emitting loud wails. It is against the law to leave the post-office unoccupied, but he can thresh that out with his wife at home after he has voted. Attorney Briggs was going to Chicago this afternoon, but I notice he is coming back from the depot. Mrs. Briggs is bringing him. If I know anything ...
— Homeburg Memories • George Helgesen Fitch

... some parts of Bavaria the man who gives the last stroke at threshing is said to have killed the Corn-man, the Oats-man, or the Wheat-man, according to the crop. In the Canton of Tillot, in Lorraine, at threshing the last corn the men keep time with their flails, calling out as they thresh, "We are killing the Old Woman! We are killing the Old Woman!" If there is an old woman in the house she is warned to save herself, or she will be struck dead. Near Ragnit, in Lithuania, the last handful of corn is left standing by itself, with the words, "The Old Woman (Boba) ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... said Matthew. "He used to pommel and thresh her up and doon, and that's why she cut away frae him, and that's why she's sic ...
— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine

... country in this fashion we passed a spot on the highroad where a man was getting ready to thresh his wheat. He had prepared the place by spreading over it a layer of cow-dung, and levelling it with his bare feet until it was quite smooth and hard. It is in this way that ...
— Two Summers in Guyenne • Edward Harrison Barker

... door, then followed a tremendous punching with a log, the door gave way, and with a fiendish yell an Indian was about to spring in, when the unerring rifle fired by the old lady stretched his lifeless body across the thresh-hold of the door. The remaining, or more properly the surviving Indian fired at random and ran, doing no injury. "Now" said the old heroine to her undaunted daughter "we must leave." Accordingly with the rifle and the axe, they went to the river, ...
— Heroes and Hunters of the West • Anonymous

... threshing and thatching. He said, it was very difficult to determine how to agree with a thresher. 'If you pay him by the day's wages, he will thresh no more than he pleases; though, to be sure, the negligence of a thresher is more easily detected than that of most labourers, because he must always make a sound while he works. If you pay him by the piece, by the quantity of grain which ...
— The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. • James Boswell

... Owen said in the most chill tone, "Barker, if you touch me, I shall go straight to Dr Rowlands." The bully well knew that Owen never broke his word, but he could not govern his rage, and first giving Owen a violent shake, he proceeded to thrash him ...
— Eric, or Little by Little • Frederic W. Farrar

... word;" and, seizing him by the collar, I shook him furiously. "Speak lightly of her," I continued, "and I will thrash you like a dog, as well as that cur who ...
— Weapons of Mystery • Joseph Hocking

... admiring family the wonderful experiences of the day; the greatness of the schoolmaster; the magnificence of the school itself; the prowess of Peter Lauchie and Roarin' Sandy's Archie, how they declared they weren't afraid of even the master; the number of boys old McAllister could thrash in a day, and the amount he knew; such fearsome long words as he could spell, and the places he could point out on the map! He chattered on to his delighted audience; but for some strange reason he made no further allusion to ...
— The Silver Maple • Marian Keith

... not in a condition to come to the scratch, even if he had been inclined. "And now, youngster," said Jack, wresting the colt out of Vigors' hand, "do as I bid you—give him a good colting if you don't I'll thrash you." ...
— Mr. Midshipman Easy • Frederick Marryat

... and we'll thrash you good," he said. "Now get—just as fast as you can walk." And he ...
— Guns And Snowshoes • Captain Ralph Bonehill

... "They are here at the foot of the hill. I have been taking care of them, but you must not thrash Jacob ...
— Lisbeth Longfrock • Hans Aanrud

... teeth; that if someone wishes it, your teeth will leave off aching, and if he does not, they will go on aching another three months; and that finally if you are still contumacious and still protest, all that is left you for your own gratification is to thrash yourself or beat your wall with your fist as hard as you can, and absolutely nothing more. Well, these mortal insults, these jeers on the part of someone unknown, end at last in an enjoyment which sometimes reaches the highest degree of voluptuousness. I ask you, gentlemen, listen ...
— Notes from the Underground • Feodor Dostoevsky

... wonder if the tramps come near enough As they thrash to and fro, And the battle-ships' bells ring clear enough To be ...
— Poems: New and Old • Henry Newbolt

... corresponding with the outer circumference of the branches. Some are still farther afield, because in falling they strike the boughs and glance aside. A long slender pole leaning against the hedge was used to thrash the boughs within reach, and so to knock down ...
— Hodge and His Masters • Richard Jefferies

... pay; but took the meerschaum pipe I gave him for a keepsake, with the frank good-will of an accomplished gentleman. The only exhibition of his hot Italian blood which I remember did his humanity credit. While we were ascending a steep hillside, he jumped from his box to thrash a ruffian by the roadside for brutal treatment to a little boy. He broke his whip, it is true, in this encounter; risked a dangerous quarrel; and left his carriage, with myself and wife inside it, to the mercy of his horses in a somewhat perilous ...
— New Italian sketches • John Addington Symonds

... Tommy had kept his best for the end (and made it up first). "And lastly," he said, "I thank this boy for thrashing me—I mean this here laddie. Oh, may he allus be near to thrash me when I strike this other lassie ...
— Sentimental Tommy - The Story of His Boyhood • J. M. Barrie

... "I will to-day thrash the Mexicans, or die a-trying!" was what Sam Houston said to an aide, the morning of the battle of San Jacinto. ...
— How to Get on in the World - A Ladder to Practical Success • Major A.R. Calhoon

... hating them—I give you my word that I've always hated the self-sufficiency and nauseating hypocrisy of the English. There's nothing I've wanted more than to see them damned well thrashed by somebody. And yet the minute anybody comes along to thrash them I'm up on my hind legs, furious, talking about 'Us' and 'We' and 'Our' army just as if I were ...
— The Island Mystery • George A. Birmingham

... so, Rene, but I own I have considerable doubts of it. A man when he begins to fight, fights because he is there and has got to do it. If he does not kill the enemy he will be killed; if he does not thrash the enemy he will be thrashed; and for the time being the question whether it is by a despot or by a Provisional Government that he is ruled does not matter to him one single jot. As to the Parisians, we shall see. I sincerely hope, they will do all that you expect ...
— A Girl of the Commune • George Alfred Henty

... He might have had as many as he liked for asking; but what flavor would they have thus possessed? Moreover, he bore a noble spite against the gardener, whose special pride was in that pear wall; and Pet more than once had the joy of beholding him thrash his own innocent son for the dark disappearance of Beurre and Bergamot. Making good use of this experience, he stole his way down the steep glen-side, behind the low fence of the garden, until he reached the bottom, and the brush-wood by the stream. Here ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore

... adhering to my intention of remaining independent at Foweera. M'Gambi said they were very miserable on the island, that no one could rest day or night for the mosquitoes, and that they were suffering from famine;—he had several men with him, who at once set to work to thrash out corn from the well-filled granaries of the village, and they departed heavily laden. During the day a few natives of the district found their way into the village for a similar purpose. I had previously heard that the inhabitants of ...
— The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile • Sir Samuel White Baker

... I have fifty, I make them all do what I please. Let him make use of his reason, he will speedily find a way to rid himself of his trouble. How, says the dog,, what would you have him to do? Let him go into the room where his wife is, says the cock, lock the door, and take a good stick, and thrash her well, and I will answer for it that that will bring her to her right wits, and make her forbear to ask him any more what he ought not to tell her. The merchant had no sooner heard what the cock said, than he took up a good ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Volume 1 • Anonymous

... my words, Tom. He has told her. They are going abroad to thrash it all out, that's the ...
— Mr. Bingle • George Barr McCutcheon

... blood, and gave them two legs of an animal slaughtered by themselves. They professed the greatest detestation of the Portuguese, "because they eat pigs;" and disliked the English, "because they thrash them for selling slaves." I was silent about pork; though, had they seen me at a hippopotamus two days afterward, they would have set me down as being as much a heretic as any of that nation; but ...
— Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa - Journeys and Researches in South Africa • David Livingstone

... Pavlovitch—and a very original one. He suddenly took a thousand roubles to our monastery to pay for requiems for the soul of his wife; but not for the second, Alyosha's mother, the "crazy woman," but for the first, Adelaida Ivanovna, who used to thrash him. In the evening of the same day he got drunk and abused the monks to Alyosha. He himself was far from being religious; he had probably never put a penny candle before the image of a saint. ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... other side of his office is slightly hinted at by the reference to assisting the Constable, and in fact it was the day duty which embraced the peculiar dignity of beadledom. He was the man who had to look after the behaviour of the paupers, could in quiet times occasionally "thrash a boy or two to keep up appearances" without much questioning, and though not possessing the penal authority of the Constable, had a great deal of the detective tact to exercise in preventing unseemly brawls, &c. At the Royston Fair the Beadle's was a notable figure, and of this kind of duty the ...
— Fragments of Two Centuries - Glimpses of Country Life when George III. was King • Alfred Kingston

... now you know," added Mr. Lindsay, "why my native indolence has roused itself to get this cad taught a lesson, which many a time I wished to God, when wishes were too late, that that other bully had been taught in time. But no one could thrash him; and no one durst complain. However, let's change the subject, old fellow! I've got over it long since; though sometimes I think the wish to see Regy again helps to keep me a decent sort of fellow. ...
— Frances Kane's Fortune • L. T. Meade

... had overheard and blazed out at me in a passion of temper. Running away had plainly given him an arrogant conviction of manhood. Garry, old dear, I had to thrash him for the good of his soul and my Irish temper—he was so offensively ...
— Kenny • Leona Dalrymple

... to kill you, you unspeakable young miscreant, but I think I ought to thrash you," I answered, for, though greatly relieved at the turn things had taken, I was excessively annoyed at having experienced all those sensations of ...
— The Purple Land • W. H. Hudson

... place for a little while," remarked he. "You see my master brings me all sorts of boys, and I have to cram music into them in the briefest period possible. Of course the child revolts, and I thrash him; but do not think he cares for this; the young imps thrive on blows. The only way that I can touch them is through their stomachs. I stop a quarter, a half, and sometimes the whole of their dinner. That ...
— Caught In The Net • Emile Gaboriau

... injure my business, and most assuredly would injure the future of my daughters; therefore I will neither challenge you to a duel, nor will I direct my servants to thrash you!" ...
— The Argonauts • Eliza Orzeszko (AKA Orzeszkowa)

... am, you know. I mean it literally. Every now and then I feel I should like to thrash some one. I read in the paper this morning of some son of a"——(Denzil's language occasionally reminded one that he had been a sailor) "who had cheated a lot of poor servant-girls out of their savings. ...
— Denzil Quarrier • George Gissing

... "That's what frightens him. He said he didn't care about Ollypybus, and didn't count him in when he made the treaty, because he is such a peaceful chap that he knew he could thrash him into doing anything he wanted him to do. And now that you have turned up and taken Ollypybus's part, he wishes he hadn't sold the island, and wishes to know if you ...
— Cinderella - And Other Stories • Richard Harding Davis

... superiority as by the gratuitous insult and betrayal that he had suffered. We gave the accusers a glance of stern reproach: had they not delivered us over to the common enemy? If the common law of school entitled them to thrash us, did it not require them to keep silence as to ...
— Louis Lambert • Honore de Balzac

... the way to Indiana. But the portion referring to Phillips was transferred to the county paper circulating among Jeems' neighbors. For once the good-natured man was, as they say in Hoosier, "mad," and he threatened to thrash the editor. "Do you think he means you?" demanded the editor. "To be sure he does," said the champion speller. "Can you spell?" "I can spell down any master that ever came to our district," he replied. As time ...
— The Hoosier Schoolmaster - A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana • Edward Eggleston

... come out and see what I was about. 'Thank you,' said he, 'a luncheon of corn with the bits in is much better than none. The worst of it is, I have to munch so slowly, that master may come before I finish it, and thrash me for eating his corn, and you for the kindness.' I sat down on a stone out of the wind, and waited in trouble, for fear that the miller and the owner of the corn would come and find out what I had ...
— A Study Of Hawthorne • George Parsons Lathrop

... sat upon the trees, and grinned. "Shall we thrash him?" said they. "Shall we thrash him? He is ...
— Andersen's Fairy Tales • Hans Christian Andersen

... thrash you," said he, "because you stayed to help the little maiden, but I'll tell you something for your good about the tree you and your little mates have been climbing, bruising the bark with your heels and breaking off leaves and twigs. ...
— Dead Man's Plack and an Old Thorn • William Henry Hudson

... it pay roundly. But then it occurred to him that he did not know the name of a witness he could summon, and that a personal fight against a railway corporation was about the most hopeless in the world. He then thought he would seek out that conductor, lie in wait for him at some station, and thrash him, or get ...
— The Gilded Age, Part 4. • Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Charles Dudley Warner

... though they really had been where they belonged. But they knew how to make up for it and get some fun for themselves afterward, when they came back to school and related their adventures. They would tell us how once their father had gone by right close to the hedge, the cane with which he used to thrash them in his hand, and yet had not noticed them; how another time their mother, accompanied by the spitz dog, had come up to the ditch, the dog had smelt them out, their mother had discovered them, but the lie that ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IX - Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig • Various

... last day of my imprisonment he stopped in to thrash out a case that was coming up in court the next day, and to play a game of double solitaire ...
— The Man in Lower Ten • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... treated him with instinctive respect. He was powerful enough to thrash any two of them, and no one cared to provoke him to wrath. For Rufus in anger was a ...
— The Tidal Wave and Other Stories • Ethel May Dell

... disguise and the engagement that wasn't recognized by the parents. Strickland was furiously angry with himself and more angry with the General for forcing his hand; so he said nothing, but held the horse's head and prepared to thrash the General as some sort of satisfaction, but when the General had thoroughly grasped the story, and knew who Strickland was, he began to puff and blow in the saddle, and nearly rolled off with laughing. He said Strickland deserved a V. ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling

... "Thrash him till he can't stand!" said the subservient Bates. He was always ready to go farther than anyone else in supporting and defending the authority of the tyrant ...
— Hector's Inheritance - or The Boys of Smith Institute • Horatio Alger

... rather stupid of you. I'm so obviously a marrying man.... Now, darling, will you think the whole thing out from the beginning, after I've gone? Be first-hand; don't take over theories from other people, and don't be sentimental about it. Thrash the whole subject out with yourself and with other people—with your own friends, and with your family too. They're a modern, broad-minded set, your people, after all; they won't look at the thing ...
— Dangerous Ages • Rose Macaulay

... If I were only a boy instead of a girl, I would thrash that Le Noir within an inch of his life! But I forgot! He has gone to ...
— Capitola the Madcap • Emma D. E. N. Southworth

... said the person thus accused, "if you was anybody else, and a little younger, I'd thrash you for that speech the same as if it ...
— Charlemont • W. Gilmore Simms

... pretty certainly be laughed at; and the other, unless he shows the white feather and runs away, will generally come in for a little rough usage. This seemed likely to happen now. As Smith would not come to Philpot for a thrashing, Philpot must go to Smith and thrash him where he stood. And so doubtless he would have done, had not Mr Hashford appeared at that very moment on the gravel walk and ...
— My Friend Smith - A Story of School and City Life • Talbot Baines Reed

... thrash Bob Wood's son—he's too impudent to live," said Mrs. Amanda Maxwell, to whom Mr. Strout had ...
— The Further Adventures of Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks • Charles Felton Pidgin

... Mally Marsh, as she turned to Jessie "this is all the heed you paid to my warning, is it? If I gave you your just deserts, I would thrash you within an inch of your life, for attempting to take my lover away from me! Now listen to what I have to say, girl, and take warning: You must leave this company at once. If you do not do so, I will not answer for myself. Do not make it an excuse that you have no money. Here!" ...
— Kidnapped at the Altar - or, The Romance of that Saucy Jessie Bain • Laura Jean Libbey

... angry at each other, and they looked just like two turkey-gobblers, their faces were so red, and they blustered about so. John declared that he would thrash Harry; and Harry made faces at John, and dared ...
— Harper's Young People, March 16, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... quietly to receive them, indeed, he was not aware of the cause of his being honoured by a visit from the governor; when, however, he heard of this, he abused his wives, and promised to thrash them soundly, but absolutely refused to give either them or his son up as prisoners. The first man who might lay a finger upon him was threatened with a spear through the heart, and the governor was obliged to proclaim the sacredness of his own person, and to cock both barrels of his gun, ...
— Australia, its history and present condition • William Pridden

... don't shut up, Al," said Dick, "I'll thrash you with this good handy stick that I've ...
— The Last of the Chiefs - A Story of the Great Sioux War • Joseph Altsheler

... very poorly," says the poet. "I was a dexterous ploughman for my age; and the next eldest to me was a brother [Gilbert], who could drive the plough very well, and help me to thrash the corn. A novel-writer might perhaps have viewed these scenes with some satisfaction, but so did not I." Burns's person, inured to daily toil, and continually exposed to every variety of weather, presented, before the usual time, every characteristic of robust ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol X • Various

... said the man in a husky voice, if I ever see or hear of you opening your mouth to that rascal again, I'll thrash you until you haven't a sound bone in your body. You'd better go up now and say ...
— The Deliverance; A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields • Ellen Glasgow

... very day, during the noon breathing-spell, he had been compelled to thrash Bill Tooley, the village bully, on Paul's behalf. Bill had been a mule-driver in the mine, but had been discharged from there a few days before, and taken into the breaker. He now sat beside Paul, and during the whole morning had steadily tormented him, in spite of the lad's ...
— Derrick Sterling - A Story of the Mines • Kirk Munroe

... worry. I'm not going to thrash you—at least not now" said Dave, grimly. He was willing that Len should get what satisfaction he ...
— Cowboy Dave • Frank V. Webster

... clenched his hands. "If I knew what the fellow looked like I would thrash him the next time I saw him," he threatened, hoping thus to draw ...
— The Sheridan Road Mystery • Paul Thorne

... abatement, like natural storms; for no punishment less than death could quench the ancient inherited belligerence burning in our pagan blood. Nor could we be made to believe it was fair that father and teacher should thrash us so industriously for our good, while begrudging us the pleasure of thrashing each other for our good. All these various thrashings, however, were admirably influential in developing not only memory but fortitude as well. For if we did not endure our school punishments and fighting pains without ...
— The Story of My Boyhood and Youth • John Muir

... to make sure that the boy was not hidden somewhere, and came back to rest on his surprise with a look that was almost consternation. Was this vivid, dazzling creature the boy he had been patronizing, lecturing, promising to thrash any time during the past four days? The thing was unbelievable, not yet to be credited by his jarred brain. How incredibly blind he had been! What an idiot of sorts! Why, the marks of sex sat on her beyond any possibility of doubt. Every line of ...
— Bucky O'Connor • William MacLeod Raine

... far as the "Reminiscences," therefore, ruin Carlyle as a politician, their publication must be considered a gain for the English race. The particular political vice his influence fostered, that nobody who cannot thrash you in fight is worth listening to, is, it must be said, a vice peculiar to the English race. It is only in the Anglo-Saxon forum that a man of foreign birth and unfamiliar ways of thinking has to obtain a locus standi by making himself an ...
— Reflections and Comments 1865-1895 • Edwin Lawrence Godkin

... child that acted at once so obstreperously and in so cowardly a manner as you did last night, I should cut a stick from the forest here, and thrash him with such severity that he would never forget it. As I have not done this to you, I deny that I treat you like children. The truth is that, although the youngest, I am your commander. We are engaged in acts of war, therefore military law prevails, and not the code of Justinian. It is ...
— The Sword Maker • Robert Barr

... eyes were hard, then came a look of distress—and tears. He put his arm about her. "Why, my dear, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings; bless your life, I didn't. Why, of course, he shan't marry her. Who ever heard of such a thing? I'll talk to him—thrash him if you say the word. There, it's all right. Why, ...
— An Arkansas Planter • Opie Percival Read

... lucky. The Happy Family were foregathered there, wrangling with Happy Jack over some trifling thing. He joined zealously in the argument and helped them thrash Happy Jack in the word-war, before he ...
— The Flying U's Last Stand • B. M. Bower

... child's delicate way, as their steps quickened. The thrash of the chase was nearer; the jungle was clearing as they made their way to the border near Hurda. The low rumbling was from Nels. He would stand, turning back an instant, then trot to overtake them. . . . No question now. One pig at least, was clear of the beaters, coming this way, ...
— Son of Power • Will Levington Comfort and Zamin Ki Dost

... pallid with loathing and terror. As her glimmering dark eyes met his, they flashed a plea which made his heart thrash against his lungs. ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 • Various

... said 'I was handy to wait on her.' And it wasn't truly New York but way up by the East River. I wouldn't have stayed for a dollar. I just jumped up and down when poppy came, and she said, 'For goodness' sake! don't thrash out all my carpet with your jouncin' up an' down.' You can just go yourself, Janey Odell, and see how ...
— A Little Girl in Old New York • Amanda Millie Douglas

... poisonous insects. Finally they thrust sharp needles down to the very quicks of her nails, and still the damsel did not stir. Then the Sultana Asseki, full of fury, seized a whip, and lashed away at the damsel's body till she could lash no more, yet she could not thrash a ...
— Halil the Pedlar - A Tale of Old Stambul • Mr Jkai

... your enemies May never have the chance To see you paid for watching Will Thrash poor weak ...
— Revised Edition of Poems • William Wright

... very depths of their souls, and set their simple imaginations all ablaze; one who could shout and sing with true Western abandon; who could preach in his shirt-sleeves, sleep with them on the bare ground, brave all the dangers of a frontier life, and, if necessary, thrash any one who dared to insult him. Such was the man for these sturdy, simple Western folk, and such a man they ...
— Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made • James D. McCabe, Jr.

... and copper fastened; of immense beam, and very shallow, drawing only ten feet six inches of water. She was extraordinarily fast with the wind over her quarter, running away from the Dolphin easily. But I suspected that in a thrash to windward, in anything of a breeze, the schooner would prove to be quite a match for her, with, perhaps, a trifle to spare. She mounted fourteen twelve-pounders, and her magazine was crammed with ammunition, it having been the intention of her captain to try his luck, like ...
— The Log of a Privateersman • Harry Collingwood

... and fade, leaving them dead-white again. Then he looked into his son's eyes, and the hand with which he was groping for the cane stopped, poised in air. In those eyes there was something that no man could thrash. Scorn, anguish, pride, the knowledge of ages, gazed out from a child's eyes upon Leighton, and struck terror to his soul. His boy's frail body was the abiding-place of a power that laughed at ...
— Through stained glass • George Agnew Chamberlain

... attend to you later. If Miss Harding were not here I'd thrash you within an inch of your life now. And if I ever hear of your speaking to her again, or offering her the slightest indignity I'll put a bullet through you so quick you won't ...
— The Mucker • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... bios, logos, time-binding taking us right back to cosmos again? Now if we put psychological axioms into the time-binding apparatus, it will thrash out the results correctly, but whether the results are ...
— Manhood of Humanity. • Alfred Korzybski

... for the tizzy you owe me,—I have been waiting here for it ever since last Monday morning." This salute produced an irate look and a shake of his cane from Green, with a mutter of something about "imperance," and a wish that he had his big fighting foreman there to thrash him. When they got to the gate at the end, the tide of fashion became obstructed by the kissings of husbands and wives, the greetings of fathers and sons, the officiousness of porters, the cries of flymen, the importunities of innkeepers, the cards of bathing-women, ...
— Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities • Robert Smith Surtees

... a scoundrel, and he began by threatening to thrash me. I'm very glad he didn't try. It was in the train, and I know very well I should have strangled him. It would ...
— Eve's Ransom • George Gissing

... brother, and began to thrash the Angus man with his own staff upon all exposed parts, till the dry wood broke. Then he threw the pieces at his head, and the two brothers went off arm in arm to find a woody covert in which to repair damages against the weapon-showing, ...
— The Black Douglas • S. R. Crockett

... min,' Brothah Middleton, dat I wants to thrash out to-night in de sollertude of my own chambah," ...
— The heart of happy hollow - A collection of stories • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... let him help her, he was only driving the hot ploughshare of her misery through his own heart for nothing. So he stood there, mechanically studying the trees and remembering how they would wake from this frozen calm on a night when the north wind got at them and made them thrash at one another in the fury of their ...
— Old Crow • Alice Brown

... and you go this way you must pay custom. Zounds, you pick-hatch[150] Cavaliero petticote-monger, can you find time to be catching Thomasin? come, deliver, or by Zenacrib & the life of king Charlimayne, Ile thrash your coxcombe as they doe hennes at Shrovetyde[151]. No, will you not doe, you Tan-fat? Zounds, ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. III • Various

... and looked down upon him with a new intentness. "Well, then," she began, "let's thrash this thing out right now, and be done with it. You say it's hurt your conscience to do just one little hundredth part of what there was to be done here. Ask yourself what you mean by that. Mind, I'm not quarrelling, and I'm not thinking about anything except ...
— The Damnation of Theron Ware • Harold Frederic

... oath escaped the father's lips and he grabbed the whip which the sobbing Harry had brought; for as much as Harry loved Austin he dare not disobey his father's command. Turning again to Austin, the man thundered, "I'll thrash you within an inch of your life. Don't you dare to tell me you are going away when I forbid it. For once you ...
— The Hero of Hill House • Mable Hale

... themselves visible, but which was so judiciously assimilated to his hat and coat and waistcoat, that he was more like a stout ghost than a healthy young man. Nevertheless it was said of him that he could thrash any man in Bungay, and carry two hundredweight of flour upon his back. And Ruby also knew this of him,—that he worshipped the very ground on ...
— The Way We Live Now • Anthony Trollope

... little imp," he shouted, "or I'll thrash you so you can't sit down for a week. What call have you got to be giggling over the death of ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... of mine does its duty, we'll thrash the Mounseers, and gain the King his own again," exclaimed Dick, as he applied his weapon to the grindstone, feeling that he was a host in himself; and so he was, provided no treacherous bullet found its ...
— Charley Laurel - A Story of Adventure by Sea and Land • W. H. G. Kingston

... began, standing before her, "that we have got to thrash this matter out at last. You think I've behaved unspeakably, trailing you everywhere, and I don't deny I have, according to your point of view. But the fact is, I didn't follow you to annoy you; I'm a half-way decent ...
— The Firefly Of France • Marion Polk Angellotti

... great respect. However, there is a great abundance of chaff and straw to her grain; but the grain is good, and as we do not eat either the chaff or straw if we can avoid it, nor even the raw grain, but thrash it and winnow it, and grind it and bake it, we find it, after undergoing this process, not only very palatable, but a special dainty of its kind. But the husk is an insurmountable obstacle to those learned and educated gentlemen who judge of books entirely by the style and the grammar, ...
— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II (of II) • Augustus de Morgan

... that rope! If you don't I'll thrash you within an inch of your life when I get you down on ...
— Dutch Courage and Other Stories • Jack London

... out woods night time (What you say, Primus?) and I hold storch (torch) for him see for trash (thrash) out rice what he take out the barn. Rice been money dem time you know. And he take he rice and gone on down to town for get he liquor. And he come from town wid whiskey. Boss find it out. Five or six chillun and always give us rations. ...
— Slave Narratives Vol. XIV. South Carolina, Part 2 • Works Projects Administration

... old Hixon, after Peter had explained the truth in several ways to make him understand it. "I can hardly believe it; and yet I suppose if one chap deserved a thrashing from me, and a bigger one said, 'Thrash me instead,' and I did thrash him, and well too, I could not thrash the little ...
— The History of Little Peter, the Ship Boy • W.H.G. Kingston

... master's death, for this time he firmly believed it was in store for him from the claws of the lions; and he cursed his fate and called it an unlucky hour when he thought of taking service with him again; but with all his tears and lamentations he did not forget to thrash Dapple so as to put a good space between himself and the cart. The keeper, seeing that the fugitives were now some distance off, once more entreated and warned him as before; but he replied that he heard him, and that he need not trouble himself with any further warnings or entreaties, as they would ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... remembered what a fool he had made of Ellenor. Bah! Once and for all he had done with her! Who cared to look at her now, fright that she was! And how dared that pious idiot of a fisherman throw him down before all the company! Ah! he would soon teach him better manners! he would thrash him ...
— Where Deep Seas Moan • E. Gallienne-Robin

... were very full of courage, and their courage increased as their numbers multiplied in the capital, and they sent word to Mr. Beauregard and his men that they would be out there soon and thrash him out of Manassas. Some of these gallant men came for thirty days, others for ninety, our wise rulers being satisfied in their own mind that the latter number of days would be quite enough to finish up the small job of putting down the rebellion. ...
— Siege of Washington, D.C. • F. Colburn Adams

... it like that, old chap," he said soothingly. "I—we—all of us are doing our best. Now we won't bother about dressing; let's go straight in and thrash the thing out over ...
— Defenders of Democracy • Militia of Mercy

... school, young lady, an' I'll see that my end of th' thing's kep' up. I'll come over there an thrash every mother's son of 'em if I have t'. I'd kind o' like t' lick a few of 'em anyhow, an' if my young ones give any trouble, you jes' stop in on your way home an' I'll see that ...
— The Wind Before the Dawn • Dell H. Munger

... right out in far sight, and Miss Mabel comin' in here to sleep. 'Pears like some white folks hain't no idee of what 'longs to good manners. Here, Corind, put the jack in thar, the fish-line thar, the backy thar, and heave that ar other thrash out o'door," pointing to some geological specimens which from time to time John Jr. had gathered, and which his mother had not thought proper ...
— 'Lena Rivers • Mary J. Holmes

... the marshy ground at the end of the island where they kept up a continual honk! honk! The brown hills, the red forest, and the yellow fields were now at the height of their autumnal beauty. Soon the November north wind would thrash the trees bare, and bow the proud heads of the daisies and the goldenrod; but just now they flashed in the sun, and swayed back and forth in all ...
— Betty Zane • Zane Grey

... he an unfortunate man? for whoever would go down to Squire Dickson's hagyard, would see the same Larry's handiwork so beautiful and illegant, though his own was in such brutheen.* Even his barn to wrack; and he was obliged to thrash his oats in the open air when ther would be a frost, and he used to lose one-third of it; and if there came a thaw, 'twould almost brake ...
— The Ned M'Keown Stories - Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of - William Carleton, Volume Three • William Carleton

... re-enforce restive restiff ribbon riband rince rinse sadler saddler sallad salad sceptic skeptic sceptical skeptical scepticism skepticism segar cigar seignor seignior serjeant sergeant shoar shore soothe sooth staunch stanch streight straight suitor suiter sythe scythe tatler tattler thresh thrash thwak thwack tipler tippler tranquility tranquillity tripthong triphthong trissyllable trisyllable valice valise vallies valleys vise vice vollies volleys waggon wagon warrantee warranty whoopingcough hoopingcough woe wo ...
— English Grammar in Familiar Lectures • Samuel Kirkham

... hearing that he was suspected, his wife came to witness's house while the said Becquet was at sea, and told her that on account of the rumour which witness had raised about her husband, he the said Becquet would thrash the said Messurier, her husband, and herself, and would kill them; after that, witness went to their house to say they were not afraid either of him or her, or of their threats to kill her husband and her; witness had six big chickens which ran after their ...
— Witchcraft and Devil Lore in the Channel Islands • John Linwood Pitts

... struck me: why should we trouble? Of course if you were in any danger or anything, but why need you care? You needn't care a hang for them. We shall have a laugh at them afterwards, and if I were in your place I'd mystify them more than ever. How ashamed they'll be afterwards! Hang them! We can thrash them afterwards, but let's laugh at ...
— Crime and Punishment • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... difficult and there were more chances against than for my getting out of Germany alive. Now, in all human certainty I shall arrive at the Chateau d'Andelle (I got the address at the bank), and you owe it to me to remain on the spot till we can thrash out our affair together. I will begin on a new sheet the story of the last few months since my capture. You must forgive me if it bores you. In reality it is for my parents, when you have prepared their minds, and I don't ...
— Everyman's Land • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... orders cheerfully, though they knew it meant a thrash to windward along the perilous edge of the ice. Soon the windlass was caked with glistening ice, and long spikes of it hung from her rail, while the slippery crystals gathered thick on deck. Lumps and floes of ice detached themselves from the parent mass, and sailed out to meet the ...
— Masters of the Wheat-Lands • Harold Bindloss

... letter is straight to the point. It is going to be the biggest Indian war the country has ever seen, and one in which there must be hard fighting. Armed, equipped, and supplied and mounted as those Sioux and Cheyennes are, it will take our best to thrash them. Stannard says that you must be influenced in your action by no misrepresentation one way or other. No man in the regiment can say in his presence or mine that you have not done your full share of Indian work, and no gentleman in the regiment will blame you should you see fit to stick ...
— Marion's Faith. • Charles King

... bad," said his mate, "if Farmer Green would let us eat all we wanted of the oats that we help thrash. But he doesn't give us even ...
— The Tale of Pony Twinkleheels • Arthur Scott Bailey

... reach our more immediate subject—namely, social organization. In what sense, if any, is social organization dependent on numbers? Unfortunately, it is too large a question to thrash out here. I may, however, refer the reader to the ingenious classification of the peoples of the world, by reference to the degree of their social organization and culture, which is attempted by Mr. Sutherland in his ...
— Anthropology • Robert Marett

... again, hoping that his gun's quick flash had not been observed. He had not wished to wound the lemak mortally, for no matter how accurate his shot the monster would take long to die, and scream and thrash as it did so. One short spit of orange was preferable to a prolonged hullabaloo. But even that might ...
— The Bluff of the Hawk • Anthony Gilmore

... you like, Ivan," said Valentin, "but don't be long. We must go in and thrash this ...
— The Innocence of Father Brown • G. K. Chesterton

... and fired. The donkey received the charge in his thighs, but the shot was so small and came from such a distance that he thought he was being stung by flies, for he began to thrash himself with ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant

... own game, talked theosophy with Katso Suguri, the Japanese Buddhist and silk importer, fell for police graft, played and paid his insidious share in the democratic politics of annexed Hawaii, and was thinking of buying an automobile. Ah Kim never dared bare himself to himself and thrash out and winnow out how much of the old he had ceased to believe in. His mother was of the old, yet he revered her and was happy under her bamboo stick. Li Faa, the Silvery Moon Blossom, was of the new, yet he could never be quite ...
— On the Makaloa Mat/Island Tales • Jack London

... along. We've sugared the milk here," said Stalky, after a few minutes' zealous toil. "Never thrash ...
— Stalky & Co. • Rudyard Kipling

... into her street, ten years rolled away from him; he dreamed the childish, impossible dreams of a very youth. She might be coming down the steps as he passed. Fate might even send a drunkard or an obstreperous cabman for him to thrash in her service. But when he reached the house, nothing happened. The front door remained firmly shut; no open window gave a delicious glimpse of Annette. After his machine had gone ahead to such position that ...
— The House of Mystery • William Henry Irwin

... economy's sake we had them in summer when there were no big boys to thrash—was astonished at my industry and wisdom, and as I could see, a little afraid of them. At the end of the first week I went home bursting with an idea that in secret I had long cherished. Aunt Keren was at tea, I remember, and ...
— The Bacillus of Beauty - A Romance of To-day • Harriet Stark

... would not thrash a fellow when you have just lost him half-a-crown! Single misfortunes never come alone, they say; so there's my money and my credit gone, to say nothing of ...
— The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations • Charlotte Yonge

... foreheads as they walked, they were so frightened at being late. But the porters would not budge a foot quicker than they chose, and as they were not poor fourfooted carriers their employers dared not thrash them, though most willingly would they ...
— Bimbi • Louise de la Ramee

... man (he knew nothing of books), and he could not understand the fuss that was made over the term "constituted authorities." He became very angry with the President, said that that officer had a cowardly fear of Spain and Great Britain, and declared that he would go to Washington to "thrash" the President. He actually set out on that errand; but the fatigue and exposure which he had experienced in Florida, and the high state of excitement under which he labored, threw him into a fever while he was on his journey to Washington, and he died in Augusta ...
— Stories Of Georgia - 1896 • Joel Chandler Harris

... and every time you see one of the Hillers, go to work and thrash him like blazes? I guess, after you had half-killed two or three of them, they would learn to let ...
— Frank, the Young Naturalist • Harry Castlemon

... there, I heard of the war with our people, and hoped that they would take the place. It was, as you may suppose, a terrible disappointment to me when they failed in their attack on it. Still, I hoped that they would finally thrash Tippoo, and that, somehow, I might get handed over to them. However, as you know, when peace was made, and Kistnagherry had to be given over, the governor got orders to evacuate it, without waiting for the English to come up to ...
— The Tiger of Mysore - A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib • G. A. Henty

... condition to come to the scratch, even if he had been inclined. "And now, youngster," said Jack, wresting the colt out of Vigors's hand, "do as I bid you—give him a good colting—if you don't I'll thrash you." ...
— Mr. Midshipman Easy • Captain Frederick Marryat

... other did speak, "Since now thou hast thy heart whole it behoves me to strike, so take care of thy neck." Gawayne answers with great wroth, "Thrash on, thou fierce man, thou threatenest too long; I believe ...
— Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight - An Alliterative Romance-Poem (c. 1360 A.D.) • Anonymous

... well for fathers," he went on; "an' when you're fathers yourselves, an' able to thrash me—not as I think you'd want to, kids—I sha'nt ha' no call to meddle with you. ...
— Weighed and Wanting • George MacDonald

... fender, and frightened me a good deal more than she hurt herself. It was no use. Sometimes she used to defy me, and say she would drink, she didnt care whether she was killing herself or not. Other times she cried; implored me to save her from destroying herself; asked me why I didnt thrash the life out of her whenever I caught her drunk; promised on her oath never to touch another drop. The same evening she would be drunk again, and, when I taxed her with it, say that she wasn't drunk, that she was sick, and that she prayed the Almighty on her knees to strike her dead if she had ...
— The Irrational Knot - Being the Second Novel of His Nonage • George Bernard Shaw

... while you can get it. This man may have spoiled all your life, but when you realise it, then he may be away and out of your power. Thrash him! Half kill him now while you have the chance! But I did not stir. Vengeance has always seemed to me a poor thing. Supposing... After? ... If I satiated my rage then, what after. I should have two things to regret instead of one. No. Let him go with his ...
— To-morrow? • Victoria Cross

... now ripped itself clear from out the crest of a roller. This meant that the two cats, despite the increasing gale and thrash of the onrushing sea had succeeded in paying out a stern line to the men in the yawl, who had slipped it through the snatch block fastened in the buoy. It meant, too, that this line had been connected with the line they had brought with them from the island, its ...
— The Veiled Lady - and Other Men and Women • F. Hopkinson Smith

... they will spend their money like the gentlemen they pretend to be. If at the end you buy nothing, they will shout derisively, "Skidoo! twenty-three! no good!" and other slang of a more or less complimentary nature. The English rule them with a rod of iron; they thrash them with a cane or whip which they carry for the purpose, and consequently the natives do not bother Johnnie Bull but allow him to pass in silence. The Emperor William was here a short time since, and they opened a new gate ...
— A Fantasy of Mediterranean Travel • S. G. Bayne

... rushed into the moonlight it was like a wasp's nest poked with a stick, or a wheat shock full of mice turned over with a fork. The crowd soon understood the situation and men gathered around the sinner. There was menace in every pose and speech. They would have him up to court; they would thrash him now. But the joyful way in which Jim accepted the last suggestion and offered to meet any or all "this holy minute" had a marked effect on the programme, especially as there were present those ...
— The Preacher of Cedar Mountain - A Tale of the Open Country • Ernest Thompson Seton

... of course," said Colonel Musgrave, "for me to have offered you any personal violence as long as you were, in a manner, a guest of mine. This field, however, is the property of Judge Willoughby, and here I feel at liberty to thrash you." ...
— The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck - A Comedy of Limitations • James Branch Cabell

... to come out, and the people at Washington won't let Sampson go in. Why, those ships have been there a month now, and they'll be there just where they are now when you and I are bald. I'm no use here. All I do is to thrash across there every day and eat up more coal than the whole squadron burns in a month. Why, that tug of mine's costing the C. P. six hundred dollars a day, and I'm not sending them news enough to pay for setting it up. ...
— Ranson's Folly • Richard Harding Davis

... deceive the minister and the other bidders on that occasion. These fellows dressed up as countrymen, sailors, and persons of miscellaneous respectability. They bid and talked when that was sufficient, or helped the managers thrash any troublesome person, if necessary. Once in a long time they met their match; as, for instance, when the mate of a ship brought up a squad of his crew, burst into one of their dens, and beat and battered up the whole gang within an inch of their lives. But, in most ...
— The Humbugs of the World • P. T. Barnum

... relative—looking as big as a zebra against the moonlight. His eyes glowed steadily as he contemplated this interloper in his domain. After a moment he sank prone, extending his head. The next move, Kingozi knew, would be the flail-like thrash of the long tail, followed immediately ...
— The Leopard Woman • Stewart Edward White et al

... emancipated himself from the tyranny of field-sports. That thraldom had begun early with him, as with most of his class. He had hardly been out of his Eton jacket when gillies and water-bailiffs got hold of him, and made him thrash salmon-pools with a seventeen-foot rod until his back was breaking; and then keepers and foresters had taken possession of him, and compelled him to crawl for miles up wet gullies and across peat-hags, and then put ...
— Prince Fortunatus • William Black

... speak, but I felt my blood run hot in indignation against Carver Kinlay. I would have liked to thrash him. ...
— The Pilots of Pomona • Robert Leighton

... steadily at Professor van Calker for a moment, then, after the handshake, clenched his fist and struck downwards uttering these words: 'Nun aber wollen wir sie dreschen!'[19] ('Now we will jolly well thrash them!'); nodded to the professor ...
— What Germany Thinks - The War as Germans see it • Thomas F. A. Smith

... doubt; nor care I if Tabby thrash him every day, for my part. When come we in our proper persons, to do ...
— All's Well - Alice's Victory • Emily Sarah Holt

... hold thy hand, and let our quarrel drop!" he cried. "For we may thrash our bones all to smash here, and get no good out of it. Hold thy hand, and hereafter thou shalt be free in the merry ...
— The Junior Classics, V4 • Willam Patten (Editor)

... laughed Jonas. "The rascal seems to know his reign is over. Go back, Tartar. I'll thrash you till the favor off my whip is beat into your hide, if you don't be quiet. Hitherto he has guarded my house, when I have been from home. Now that will be your duty, Matabel. Can't keep a wife and a dog. 'Twould ...
— The Broom-Squire • S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

... thousands of Gipsies in our midst:—"Just see, mates, what a blackguard he is. He has been telling wicked lies about us, the cursed dog. I will murder him when I get hold of him. That creature, his wife, is just as bad. She is worse than he. Let us thrash them both and drive them out of our society, and not let them come near us, such cut-throats and informers as they are. They are nothing but murderers. They are informers. We shall all come to grief through their misdoings." Not much poetry and romance in language ...
— Gipsy Life - being an account of our Gipsies and their children • George Smith

... a while, but I was firm, and after he had threatened to thrash me, to knock me down, and to denounce me to the police, he gave in and went to fetch ...
— Castles in the Air • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... you a dad for you to jeer at? Y'ought to be ashamed o' yo'self. Serve yo' right if he does thrash yo' when yo' get home." And David, turning round, found James Moore close behind him, his heavy eyebrows lowering over ...
— Bob, Son of Battle • Alfred Ollivant



Words linked to "Thresh" :   lam, thresh about, bat, jactitate, beat up, clobber, thrash about, flail, work over, cream, convulse, agriculture, toss



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