flesh and blood

noun

1. offspring or relatives.

   one's own flesh and blood.

2. the human body or nature.

   more than flesh and blood can endure.

Word History and Origins

Origin of flesh and blood¹

First recorded in 1200–50

Idioms and Phrases

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]

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]

Example Sentences

To its credit, “Kissinger” quotes flesh and blood humans recounting some of the horrors Nixon and Kissinger’s policies visited on other nations, such as Cambodia and Bangladesh.

Read more on Salon

To its credit, “Kissinger” quotes flesh and blood humans recounting some of the horrors Nixon and Kissinger’s policies visited on other nations, such as Cambodia and Bangladesh.

Read more on Salon

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.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“They are of us and among us, our own flesh and blood. But they sold their conscience.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

He especially reveled in cross-examining Bovino, finding it amusing that while the other Border Patrol agents who testified wore suits and ties, the sector chief sported his uniform, which Ortega joked made him look like “the abstract concept of la migra had personified into flesh and blood.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times