flay
Americanverb
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to strip off the skin or outer covering of, esp by whipping; skin
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to attack with savage criticism
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to strip of money or goods, esp by cheating or extortion
Usage
What does flay mean? To flay is to strip off the skin or outer covering of something. Flay is most commonly used metaphorically to refer to severely criticizing someone. It can also mean to cheat or deprive someone of money or property. The original, literal meaning of flay typically referred to removing the skin of an animal. Flay can also refer to removing the skin of a human, especially as a form of torture by whipping. Neither of its literal senses are commonly used anymore, except perhaps in fiction. Example: People on social media love to flay celebrities who are caught doing the opposite of what they always tell other people to do.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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flaysimple
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flayssimple
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have flayedperfect
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has flayedperfect
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am flayingprogressive
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are flayingprogressive
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is flayingprogressive
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have been flayingperfect progressive
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has been flayingperfect progressive
Past
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flayedsimple
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had flayedperfect
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was flayingprogressive
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were flayingprogressive
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had been flayingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of flay
before 900; Middle English flen, Old English flēan; cognate with Middle Dutch vlaen, Old Norse flā
Explanation
Nasty word, flay. It means to peel or beat the skin of a person or animal, and not necessarily a dead one, either. Nowadays it more commonly means to criticize harshly someone or something, usually in public, leaving them raw and wounded. To be flayed alive was a common punishment in ancient times for political enemies or traitors. The ancient Assyrians were particularly good at it. Today, if you want to have your skin — metaphorically — peeled in public, you go on reality TV. It can be equally nasty.
Vocabulary lists containing flay
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
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"The Odyssey," Vocabulary from Part 1 of the epic poem
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There was still time for Root and Archer to flay the weary Australia attack in 44 balls of mayhem before the close.
From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2025
Then they flay it—not filet, flay—meaning remove the skin.
From Salon ● Dec. 7, 2023
This isn’t to criticize the family, but to flay CNN, which should have reported the factual context of the household’s inflation experience.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2021
But coronavirus fears continue to flay stocks that are heavily exposed to China or sell to Australia’s debt-laden consumers.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 24, 2020
But presently I gave command to my officers to flay those sheep the bronze cut down, and make burnt offerings of flesh to the gods below—to sovereign Death, to pale Persephone.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
Political correctness is only one of the many cherished attitudes that Berg flays.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 13, 2022
He similarly flays the response to the recent documentary about Michael Jackson and riskily spotlights a ten-year-old kid sitting in the front row.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 13, 2019
He lofts Jadeja for a straight six, then flays him for a square four and rounds off the over by melding those two strokes, with a dancing lofted cover-drive for four more.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 18, 2017
In the harum-scarum batting has been beautiful strokeplay, the off-drives of Bell and the clips through leg of Root, the innovation and aggression of Warner and the counter-attacking flays of Moeen Ali.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2015
He leaves us no illusions, and not only strips his subject, but flays it and shows the raw muscles beneath the skin.
From From Chaucer to Tennyson by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers
One of his recurring subjects was meat, from flayed rabbits to rayfish, with odorous side effects.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
A convent girl with a creepy streak, Elizabeth sees beauty in biology, leaning over a corpse’s flayed back to appreciate the intricacy of its ventricles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2025
Instead, the body language slumped more and more after every wide, no-ball and boundary that was flayed from their inconsistent bowling.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2023
The students plastered Dean Martinez’s classroom last week with flyers saying that the protesters were exercising their First Amendment right to engage in “counter-speech,” an argument flayed by Judge Duncan.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 24, 2023
The rope—the rope to which Jonathan had been tied—remained tied to his ankle and flayed about like a writhing snake.
From "The Fighting Ground" by Avi
Khawaja had five when he nicked a flaying drive off Josh Tongue to second slip, where Brook shelled a tough chance but one he would expect to take.
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2025
Both the show, which employed different hosts over the years, and Carlson’s contract, were canceled not long after, by some accounts as a direct result of the flaying.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2021
By combining rapid-fire wordplay, historical japery, the subversion of middle-class mores and the flaying of upper-class twits, Monty Python “took silliness to renaissance levels,” Thompson said.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 22, 2020
The chant of “We’ve got our Arsenal back” during the 5-1 flaying of Fulham summed up the season so far.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 14, 2018
There will be no flaying here whilst I am Prince of Winterfell, Theon had responded, little dreaming how short his rule would prove.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
