scutch
/skʌtʃ
/verb [with object]
Dress (fibrous material, especially retted flax) by beating it: it drove mills for scutching flax...
- The account of breaking, scutching and hackling flax, for example, is the clearest and most informative short discussion that I have seen.
- The damn retting, spreading, scutching and finally the sale of the finished product always gave cause for instant celebration.
- Our dinner topics that night included retting, scutching, and hackling.
Derivatives
scutcher
- The heads of wheat were fed perpendicular to the drum through a set of convex rollers, such that the drum's scutchers knocked the grain loose.
- The scutcher is somewhat similar to the stripping drum in principle.
Origin
Mid 18th century: from obsolete French escoucher, from Latin excutere 'shake out'.