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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

Examples from the Web for fleshly

Historical Examples

  • 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