Obs. exc. in sense 2. [Of obscure origin; perh. the 15th-c. TRASE is the same word.
As it is a hunting term, a French origin is naturally suspected, but the OF. trasier, trachier ‘to draw a line through, strike out, efface,’ which agrees in form, does not explain sense 1, though it is app. the origin of sense 2.]
† 1. trans. To check (a hound) by a, cord or leash; hence gen. to hold back, restrain, retard, encumber, hinder. Obs.
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 81. Who t’ aduance, and who To trash for ouertopping.
a. 1619. Fletcher, Bonduca, I. i. I fled too, But not so fast;… he trasht me, Nennius.
1646. Hammond, Tracts, 31. Grieving the Spirit of God,… trashing of God in his course of grace. Ibid. (a. 1660), Serm., x. Wks. 1683, IV. 534. To incumber and trash us in our violent furious marches.
1837. De Quincey, Revolt of Tartars, Wks. 1862, IV. 145. There was not a chance for them, burdened and ‘trashed’ as they were, to anticipate so agile a light cavalry as the Cossacks.
2. To efface, obliterate. western U.S.
This was prob. a term of the French trappers.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., To trash a trail, an expression used at the West, meaning to conceal the direction one has taken by walking in a stream.
