See Also: flay(medicine)
flay(dictionary)
flay(dictionary)

flay (iou)



flay verb1 trans. , flea.
[Old English flean = Middle Dutch vlae(gh)en (Dutch vlaen), Old Norse fla, from Germanic.]
Strip or pull off the skin or hide of; skin. OE.
U. Le Guin The tanned skins of rebels flayed alive.
Strip, peel off (the skin). ME.
F. M. Ford Those two women pursued that poor devil and flayed the skin off him.
b. Tear off (a man's beard) together with the skin. ME-L15.
Strip off or severely damage portions of the skin from; excoriate. ME.
Ld Macaulay The prospect of dying in Newgate, with a back flayed and an eye knocked out.
Remove or strip off (an outer covering, as peel, bark, etc.). Now chiefly dial. ME.
F. Forsyth She was rusty, her paint blistered by the sun in many places, flayed off by salt spray in others.
b. Pare (off) thin slices of (turf). L16.
Strip an outer covering from; peel. L16.
b. Strip (a person) of clothing; undress. rare (Shakes.). Only in E17.
c. Strip (a building etc.) of its exterior covering or ornament. M17.
Rob or cheat (a person); pillage, plunder. arch. L16.
J. A. Froude Plundering cities and temples and flaying the people with requisitions.
Subject to acute pain or torture; fig. criticize severely, abuse. L18.
W. Safire The antisloppiness brigade..has flayed the cliche users.
Comb.: flay-flint a skinflint.
flayer noun LME.