Efflower

Pronunciation

• RP enPR: Ä•flouÉ™rʹ, IPA: /ɛˈflaÊŠÉš/

Origin

Borrowed from .

Full definition of efflower

Verb

1. (rare) To graze; (leatherworking) to remove the outer surface of (a skin) with a knife.
• 1864, Andrew Ure, A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines, volume II, Leather:Chamois or Shamoy leather.—The skins are first washed, limed, fleeced, and branned as above described. They are next efflowered, that is, deprived of their epidermis by a concave knife, blunt in its middle part, upon the convex horse-beam.
• 1913, John Galen Howard, From olive groves of academe, in the University of California Chronicle, page 101:In the pregnant bounds
  Of delicatest breath, that but efflowers the ear
  And lapses into nothingness.

Related terms

• effleurage

Anagrams