threshing machine
1
4.7
- noun
- Archaic
:
máquina de trilla
- After the grain was harvested, they used the threshing machine to efficiently extract the seeds from the straw.
Examples
-
Shortly after immigration, Kleine Gemeinde farmers began purchasing hay mowers, reapers, seeder drills, threshing machines, and stationary steam engines.
Academic text (1992) -
He was caught in a threshing machine.
-
One person would buy the threshing machine, and others would own their respective machines.
Blog text (33) -
Threshing machines were being built on a similar principle.
Academic text (2000) -
There are almost no big farms in England, where, for example, threshing machines are not used, by means of which, in a large operation, more work is done in a day than was done in a month by ordinary methods.
Academic text (2018) -
Members of the committee pantomimed the pitching of wheat bundles into a threshing machine.
Academic text (1996) -
The hum of the combine would be sweet music to my ears, and pitching bundles into the old threshing machine would be the greatest activity in the world for me.
Fiction book (1990) -
The leg was long, its shin as sleek and bare as the blade of a threshing machine, its thigh still covered in fine blonde down, and I couldn't believe, after all I'd done, you could turn out so perfect.
Fiction book (2001) -
The farmer relied on the threshing machine to quickly separate the wheat from the chaff after the harvest.
-
In the early morning light, the threshing machine roared to life, making the task of processing the grain much easier.
Synonyms
6
6.1
A large farm machine that harvests and cleans grain as it moves across a field
3
7.2
A machine that separates grain from husks and straw
A farm machine that separates grain from the husks and straw
How Efficient
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is fully compositional: 'threshing' is the gerund/nominalization of 'thresh' (to beat grain to separate seeds) and 'machine' denotes a device that performs that action, so the meaning 'a machine that threshes' is directly derivable from its parts. This verb+machine construction is a productive, cross-linguistic pattern for naming instruments, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would understand the MWE.
Etymology
The compound noun threshing machine comes from farm work: threshing meant to beat the wheat so the grain came away from the stalks, and a machine did that hard work for people. So, the name means 'a machine used on farms to separate grain or seeds from husks and straw'.