Combine harvester (Agriculture Glossary)

Combine harvester : Also simply called a combine.

A type of agricultural machinery designed to efficiently harvest a variety of different grain crops by combining three traditionally separate harvesting operations – reaping, threshing, and winnowing – into a single mechanical process. The harvested grain is stored either in an on-board compartment or offloaded into separate equipment, while the remaining straw is typically discarded on to the field.