1. [n]  a swimming kick used while treading water
2. [v]  beat thoroughly in a competition or fight; "We licked the other team on Sunday!"
3. [v]  give a thrashing to; beat hard
4. [v]  beat the seeds out of a grain; in agriculture
5. [v]  move data into and out of core rather than performing useful computation; of overloaded paging systems; "The system is thrashing again!"
6. [v]  beat so fast that (the heart's) output starts dropping until (it) does not manage to pump out blood at all
7. [v]  move or stir about violently; "The feverish patient thrashed around in his bed"
8. [v]  dance the slam dance

1. \Thrash\, Thresh \Thresh\, v. t. [imp. & p. p.
   {Thrashed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Thrashing}.] [OE.
   [thorn]reschen, [thorn]reshen, to beat, AS. [thorn]erscan,
   [thorn]rescan; akin to D. dorschen, OD. derschen, G.
   dreschen, OHG. dreskan, Icel. [thorn]reskja, Sw. tr["o]ska,
   Dan. t[ae]rske, Goth. [thorn]riskan, Lith. traszketi to
   rattle, Russ. treskate to burst, crackle, tresk' a crash,
   OSlav. troska a stroke of lighting. Cf. {Thresh}.]
   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.                             --H. Spencer.
   2. To beat soundly, as with a stick or whip; to drub.
   

2. \Thrash\, Thresh \Thresh\, v. t.
   1. To practice thrashing grain or the like; to perform the
      business of beating grain from straw; as, a man who
      thrashes well.
   2. Hence, to labor; to toil; also, to move violently.
            I rather would be M[ae]vius, thrash for rhymes, Like
            his, the scorn and scandal of the times. --Dryden.
   

To move wildly or violently, without accomplishing anything useful. Paging or swapping systems that are overloaded waste most of their time moving data into and out of core (rather than performing useful computation) and are therefore said to thrash. Thrashing can also occur in a cache due to cache conflict or in a multiprocessor (see ping-pong).

Someone who keeps changing his mind (especially about what to work on next) is said to be thrashing. A person frantically trying to execute too many tasks at once (and not spending enough time on any single task) may also be described as thrashing.

Compare multitask.

[Jargon File]