Flesh
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ɛʃ
Origin
From Middle English flesh, from Old English flÇ£sc, from Proto-Germanic *flaiskÄ…, from Proto-Indo-European *plehâ‚ḱ- ("to tear, peel off"). Compare German Fleisch, Low German Fleesch, West Frisian fleis, Dutch vlees, Danish flæsk, Icelandic flesk.
Full definition of flesh
Noun
flesh
(uncountable)- The soft tissue of the body, especially muscle and fat.
- 1918, Fannie Farmer, , Chapter XVII: Poultry and Game,The flesh of chicken, fowl, and turkey has much shorter fibre than that of ruminating animals, and is not intermingled with fat,—the fat always being found in layers directly under the skin, and surrounding the intestines.
- The skin of a human or animal.
- (by extension) Bare arms, bare legs, bare torso.
- (archaic) Animal tissue regarded as food; meat.
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XV:I charge the that thou ete no fleysshe as longe as ye be in the Queste of Sankgreall, nother ye shall drynke no wyne ....
- c.1530s, , , , 7, xix-xxi,The flesh that twycheth any vnclene thinge shall not be eaten. but burnt with fire: and all that be clene in their flesh, maye eate flesh.Yf any soule eate of the flesh of the peaceofferynges, that pertayne vnto the Lorde and hys vnclennesse yet apon him, the same soule shall perisshe from amonge his peoole.Moreouer yf a soule twych any vnclene thinge, whether it be the vnclennesse of man or of any vnclene beest or any abhominacion that is vnclene: ad the eate of the flesh of the peaceoffrynges whiche pertayne vnto the Lord, that soule shall perissh from his people.
- The human body as a physical entity.
- c.1530s, , , , 6, x,And the preast shall put on his lynen albe and his lynen breches apon his flesh, and take awaye the asshes whiche the fire of the burntsacrifice in the altare hath made, and put them besyde the alter,
- (religion) The mortal body of a human being, contrasted with the spirit or soul.
- 1769, , Oxford Standard text, , 5, xvii,For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
- 1929 January, Bassett Morgan (), , first published in Weird Tales, reprinted 1949, in ,But death had no gift for me, no power to free me from flesh.
- (religion) The evil and corrupting principle working in man.
- The soft, often edible, parts of fruits or vegetables.
- 2003, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, Arboretum America: A Philosophy of the Forest, page 81,The flesh of black walnuts was a protein-packed winter food carefully hoarded in tall, stilted buildings.
- (obsolete) Tenderness of feeling; gentleness.
- CowperThere is no flesh in man's obdurate heart.
- (obsolete) Kindred; stock; race.
- Bible, Genesis xxxvii. 27He is our brother and our flesh.
- A yellowish pink colour; the colour of some Caucasian human skin.
Synonyms
Verb
- (transitive) To bury (something, especially a weapon) in flesh.
- 1933: Robert E. Howard, The Scarlet CitadelGive me a clean sword and a clean foe to flesh it in.
- (obsolete) To inure or habituate someone in or to a given practice. 16th-18th c.
- 1603, John Florio, trans. Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.7:And whosoever could now joyne us together, and eagerly flesh all our people to a common enterprise, we should make our ancient military name and chivalrous credit to flourish againe.
- To put flesh on; to fatten.
- To add details.The writer had to go back and flesh out the climactic scene.
- to remove the flesh from the skin during the making of leather.