[f. as prec. + -ING2.] That thrashes or threshes; esp. that threshes corn, etc. In quot. 1706 in sense ‘great,’ ‘big’: cf. THUMPING ppl. a.
1591. Troub. Raigne K. John (1611), 28. Base heardgroom, coward, peasant, worse than a threshing slaue.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 71. He observes, that the worm Jacob was a threshing worm [cf. Isa. xli. 14, 15].
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 30. In one Twelve-Month he comes to be an able, roaring, threshing Fellow.
1887. G. Meredith, Ballads & P., 74. Chosen warriors, keen and hard; Grains of threshing battle-dints.
