thrash
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to move your arms and legs around in a violent or uncontrolled way.
v.to move about wildly or violently; to flail, often as a result of struggle or lack of control.
Simple“The swimmer began to thrash his arms in the water when he felt a cramp.”
In context“The injured animal continued to thrash about in the undergrowth, making it difficult for the vet to administer a sedative safely.”
Synonyms - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to beat an opponent or another team by a very large score.
v.to defeat an opponent utterly or decisively in a competition or contest.
Simple“Our local team managed to thrash the champions four-nil in a surprise victory.”
In context“The incumbent candidate thrashed his rival in the primary election, securing a majority in nearly every district.”
- 03 C1 Advanced
v.to hit a person or animal many times as a punishment.
v.to beat mercilessly or repeatedly, typically with a stick or whip.
Simple“In the old novel, the cruel master threatened to thrash the servant for being late.”
In context“The historical account describes how prisoners were thrashed for the slightest infractions of the camp's arbitrary rules.”
- 04 C2 Proficiency
v.when a computer spends all its time moving data instead of doing work, making it very slow.
v.to undergo poor performance in a virtual memory system where excessive paging prevents productive processing.
Simple“The server started to thrash because too many heavy applications were running at once.”
In context“System throughput plummeted as the machine began to thrash, with the hard drive light remaining solid due to constant page swaps.”
- 05 B2 Upper Intermediate
n.a fast and loud type of heavy metal music.
n.a subgenre of heavy metal music characterised by its fast tempo and overall aggression.
Simple“He spent his teenage years listening to thrash and playing the drums.”
In context“The band's early work is considered a cornerstone of eighties thrash, blending punk speed with complex guitar structures.”
Synonymsthrash metal
“A meeting between Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, the club’s chief suit, and Alvarez is scheduled, where the latter’s future will be thrashed out.”
“They thrashed Hungary 6-0 and scored umpteen long-range screamers before losing 4-3 to Belgium in a thriller.”
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.