thrash

n : a swimming kick used while treading water

v 1: give a thrashing to; beat hard [syn: {thresh}, {lam}, {flail}]

2: beat about [syn: {convulse}, {thresh}, {thresh about}, {thrash

about}, {slash}, {toss}]

3: dance the slam dance [syn: {slam dance}, {slam}, {mosh}]

4: beat the seeds out of a grain; in agriculture [syn: {thresh}]

5: beat thoroughly in a competition or fight; "We licked the

other team on Sunday!" [syn: {bat}, {clobber}, {drub}, {lick}]

thrash

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}]