Thrash

verb (used with object)
1.
to beat soundly in punishment; flog.
2.
to defeat thoroughly:
The home team thrashed the visitors.
3.
Nautical. to force (a close-hauled sailing ship under heavy canvas) against a strong wind or sea.
4.
thresh.
verb (used without object)
5.
to toss, or plunge about.
6.
Nautical. to make way against the wind, tide, etc.; beat.
7.
thresh.
noun
8.
an act or instance of thrashing; beating; blow.
9.
thresh.
10.
Swimming. the upward and downward movement of the legs, as in the crawl.
11.
British Slang. a party, usually with drinks.
Verb phrases
12.
thrash out/over, to talk over thoroughly and vigorously in order to reach a decision, conclusion, or understanding; discuss exhaustively.
Also, thresh out/over.
verb
1.
(transitive) to beat soundly, as with a whip or stick
2.
(transitive) to defeat totally; overwhelm
3.
(intransitive) to beat or plunge about in a wild manner
4.
(intransitive) to move the legs up and down in the water, as in certain swimming strokes
5.
to sail (a boat) against the wind or tide or (of a boat) to sail in this way
6.
another word for thresh
noun
7.
the act of thrashing; blow; beating
8.
(informal) a party or similar social gathering

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]