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fleshly

[flesh-lee]
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adjective, flesh·li·er, flesh·li·est.
  1. of or relating to the flesh or body; bodily, corporeal, or physical.
  2. carnal; sensual: fleshly pleasures.
  3. worldly, rather than spiritual.
  4. having a sensuous quality: the fleshly poetry of the 17th century.
  5. Obsolete. having much flesh; fleshy.
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Origin of fleshly

before 900; Middle English; Old English flǣsclic. See flesh, -ly
Related formsflesh·li·ness, noun
Can be confusedfleshly fleshy

Synonym study

2. See carnal.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for fleshly

animal, bodily, carnal, erotic, gross, lascivious, lewd, lustful, profane, sensual, voluptuous, animalistic, venereal, corporal, corporeal, earthly, human, material, mundane, physical

Examples from the Web for fleshly

Historical Examples of fleshly

  • For the moment, she forgot his hopeless durance in fleshly walls.

    Meadow Grass

    Alice Brown

  • Colonel Bishop halted to consider her, shading his eyes with his fleshly hand.

    Captain Blood

    Rafael Sabatini

  • If the yearning of a fleshly love is gone, you are without love, without obligation.

    Romola

    George Eliot

  • How often the fleshly mind has usurped His place in Thy worship!

    Holy in Christ

    Andrew Murray

  • In a moment the fleshly image receded, it sank back into the darkness.

British Dictionary definitions for fleshly

fleshly

adjective -lier or -liest
  1. relating to the body, esp its sensual nature; carnalfleshly desire
  2. worldly as opposed to spiritual
  3. fleshy; fat
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Derived Formsfleshliness, noun
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 fleshly

adj.

Old English flæsclic; see flesh (n.) + -ly (1).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper