flesh and blood
Americannoun
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offspring or relatives.
one's own flesh and blood.
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the human body or nature.
more than flesh and blood can endure.
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Human beings, especially with respect to their failings or weaknesses. For example, I can't do everything—I'm only flesh and blood . [c. 1600]
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one's own flesh and blood . One's blood relatives, kin, as in She can't cut her own flesh and blood out of her will . [c. 1300]
Etymology
Origin of flesh and blood
First recorded in 1200–50
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.
Does consciousness require flesh and blood to exist?
From Science Daily ● Jun. 24, 2026
Great TV imbues its fiction with a soul, coaxing us to view fully crafted characters as beings of flesh and blood, or constructed unscripted scenarios as truth.
From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026
Dude No. 1 will always be Brady, a sixth-round pick now immortalized outside Gillette Stadium with a behemoth bronze statue that’s probably only a tick slower in the 40 than the flesh and blood original.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025
Often, it's the first time a medical student works with real flesh and blood - an experience that can't be replicated from a textbook.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2025
Dane, fully flesh and blood, but one hundred percent of nothing.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
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.
