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flesh

[flesh]

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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR flesh ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

the soft substance of a human or other animal body, consisting of muscle and fat.

muscular and fatty tissue.

this substance or tissue in animals, viewed as an article of food, usually excluding fish and sometimes fowl; meat.

fatness; weight.

the body, especially as distinguished from the spirit or soul: The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

the physical or animal nature of humankind as distinguished from its moral or spiritual nature: the needs of the flesh.

living creatures generally.

a person's family or relatives.

Botany. the soft, pulpy portion of a fruit, vegetable, etc., as distinguished from the core, skin, shell, etc.

the surface of the human body; skin: A person with tender flesh should not expose it to direct sunlight.

(no longer in common use; now considered offensive) flesh color.

verb (used with object)

to plunge (a weapon) into the flesh.

Hunting. to feed (a hound or hawk) with flesh in order to make it more eager for the chase.Compare blood(def 16).

to incite and accustom (persons) to bloodshed or battle by an initial experience.

to inflame the ardor or passions of by a foretaste.

to overlay or cover (a skeleton or skeletal frame) with flesh or with a fleshlike substance.

to give dimension, substance, or reality to (often followed by out): The playwright wrote pretty good characters, but the actors really fleshed them out.

to remove adhering flesh from (hides), in leather manufacture.

Archaic. to satiate with flesh or fleshly enjoyments; surfeit; glut.

Verb Phrases

flesh out,

to gain weight: He realized to his dismay that he had fleshed out during the months of forced inactivity.
to add details to or make more complete: She fleshed out her proposal considerably before presenting it to the committee for action.

Idioms

in the flesh, present and alive before one's eyes; in person: The movie star looked quite different in the flesh.

pound of flesh, something that strict justice demands is due, but can only be paid with great loss or suffering to the payer.

press the flesh, Informal. to shake hands, as with voters while campaigning: The senator is busy as ever pressing the flesh on the campaign trail.

Origin of flesh

before 900; Middle English flesc, Old English flǣsc; cognate with Old Frisian flēsk, Old High German fleisk (German Fleisch), Old Norse flesk bacon

Related formsflesh·less, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for flesh

beef, muscle, meat, fat, weight, brawn, food, fatness, corpuscles, cells, plasm, protoplasm, plasma, physicality, sensuality, people, carnality, animality, race, world

Examples from the Web for flesh

Contemporary Examples of flesh

There was deep brown flesh, and bronze flesh, and pallid white flesh, and flesh turned red from the hot sun.
Powerful Congressman Writes About ‘Fleshy Breasts’
Asawin Suebsaeng
January 7, 2015
Flesh encircled him at the main pool of the Paradise Hotel and Residences at Boca.
Powerful Congressman Writes About ‘Fleshy Breasts’
Asawin Suebsaeng
January 7, 2015
It also contains some clunky passages of adultery, temptations of the flesh, and general sexual awkwardness.
Powerful Congressman Writes About ‘Fleshy Breasts’
Asawin Suebsaeng
January 7, 2015
His flesh is sagging a bit, but he is still trim and looks lean, sinewy and tough.
The Story Behind Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance Smile
Robert Ward
January 3, 2015
He carried around a hundred pounds too many most of his life, a great buffer of flesh between himself and the world.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days
David Freeman
December 13, 2014

Historical Examples of flesh

The fingers thrust at his throat—he seemed to be tearing his own flesh.
Way of the Lawless
Max Brand
Oh, strong, strong are the ties of flesh, and hard it is to subdue the spirit!
The White Company
Arthur Conan Doyle
Your flesh has never been made to creep: but the cockles of your heart have been warmed.
De Libris: Prose and Verse
Austin Dobson
You don't think I would leave my own flesh and blood in the cellar!
Weighed and Wanting
George MacDonald
The fingers should be used to separate the flesh at this place.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 3
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

British Dictionary definitions for flesh

flesh

noun

the soft part of the body of an animal or human, esp muscular tissue, as distinct from bone and visceraRelated adjective: sarcoid

informal excess weight; fat

archaic the edible tissue of animals as opposed to that of fish or, sometimes, fowl; meat

the thick usually soft part of a fruit or vegetable, as distinct from the skin, core, stone, etc

the human body and its physical or sensual nature as opposed to the soul or spiritRelated adjective: carnal

mankind in general

animate creatures in general

one's own family; kin (esp in the phrase one's own flesh and blood)

a yellowish-pink to greyish-yellow colour

Christian Science belief on the physical plane which is considered erroneous, esp the belief that matter has sensation

(modifier) tanning of or relating to the inner or under layer of a skin or hidea flesh split

in the flesh in person; actually present

make one's flesh creep (esp of something ghostly) to frighten and horrify one

press the flesh informal to shake hands, usually with large numbers of people, esp in political campaigning

verb

(tr) hunting to stimulate the hunting instinct of (hounds or falcons) by giving them small quantities of raw flesh

to wound the flesh of with a weapon

archaic, or poetic to accustom or incite to bloodshed or battle by initial experience

tanning to remove the flesh layer of (a hide or skin)

to fatten; fill out

Word Origin for flesh

Old English flǣsc; related to Old Norse flesk ham, Old High German fleisk meat, flesh

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for flesh

n.

Old English flæsc "flesh, meat," also "near kindred" (a sense now obsolete except in phrase flesh and blood), common West and North Germanic (cf. Old Frisian flesk, Middle Low German vlees, German Fleisch "flesh," Old Norse flesk "pork, bacon"), of uncertain origin, perhaps from Proto-Germanic *flaiskoz-.

Figurative use for "animal or physical nature of man" (Old English) is from the Bible, especially Paul's use of Greek sarx, which yielded sense of "sensual appetites" (c.1200). Flesh-wound is from 1670s; flesh-color, the hue of "Caucasian" skin, is first recorded 1610s, described as a tint composed of "a light pink with a little yellow" [O'Neill, "Dyeing," 1862]. An Old English poetry-word for "body" was flæsc-hama, literally "flesh-home."

v.

1520s, "to render (a hunting animal) eager for prey by rewarding it with flesh from a kill," with figurative extensions, from flesh (n.). Meaning "to clothe or embody with flesh," with figurative extensions, is from 1660s. Related: Fleshed; fleshing.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

flesh in Medicine

flesh

[flĕsh]

n.

The soft tissue of the body of a vertebrate, covering the bones and consisting mainly of skeletal muscle and fat.

Related formsflesh′y adj.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Idioms and Phrases with flesh

flesh

In addition to the idioms beginning with flesh

flesh and blood
flesh out

also see:

go the way of all flesh
in person (the flesh)
make one's flesh creep
neither fish nor fowl (flesh)
pound of flesh
press the flesh
spirit is willing but the flesh is weak
thorn in one's flesh

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.