Originally referring to the agricultural process of winnowing—tossing grain to separate it from chaff—this verb came to mean crushing or destroying completely. Jesus uses it in identical warnings (Matthew 21:44, Luke 20:18): anyone on whom the rejected stone falls will be utterly pulverized. The image combines agricultural and architectural metaphors: grain scattered to the wind and stones crushing whatever lies beneath. Ancient Greek used it for everything from literal threshing to metaphorically destroying someone's vegetable garden.