Also thresher, thrusher. [Perh. a survival of thrusher, thresher, an Eng. dialectal name of the THRUSH (Turdus musicus), in U.S. assimilated to prec.; but chronological evidence is wanting.
Cf. 1881. Oxfordsh. Gloss., Suppl. (E.D.S.), Thresher or Thrusher, a thrush.] A bird of the North American genus Harporhynchus, resembling the Song Thrush; esp. H. († Turdus) fuscus, the best known of the species, of the north-eastern U.S., called also brown thrasher, brown thrush.
1808–14. A. Wilson, Amer. Ornith. (1832), I. 233. The Brown Thrush, or Thrasher, of the middle and eastern states. Ibid., 235. The Thrasher is a welcome visitant in spring.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, I. vi. She sings round after dark, like a thrasher.
1883. Newton, in Encycl. Brit., XVI. 541/1. Known in the United States as Threshers … very Thrush-like in their habits. Ibid. (1896), Dict. Birds, 958. Thrasher, Thresher, or Thrusher,… a bird well known in the eastern part of North America, the Turdus fuscus of the older and Harporhynchus fuscus of later ornithologists.
