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Flay   /fleɪ/   Listen
Flay

verb
(past & past part. flayed; pres. part. flaying)
1.
Strip the skin off.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Flay" Quotes from Famous Books



... The bulls and rams all pure, We proceed to the winter and autumnal sacrifices. Some flay (the victims); some cook (their flesh); Some arrange (the meat); some adjust (the pieces of it). The officer of prayer sacrifices inside the temple gate[1], And all the sacrificial service is complete and brilliant. Grandly come our progenitors; Their spirits happily enjoy the offerings; ...
— The Shih King • James Legge

... painted happiness thrones and sceptres were there would not be so frequent strife about the getting or holding of them; there would be more principalities than princes; for a prince is the pastor of the people. He ought to shear, not to flay his sheep; to take their fleeces, not their the soul of the commonwealth, and ought to cherish it as his own body. Alexander the Great was wont to say, "He hated that gardener that plucked his herbs or flowers up by the roots." A man may milk a beast till the blood come; ...
— Discoveries and Some Poems • Ben Jonson

... the great burnt lands, where the fine snow drives and drifts so terribly. In such a place the best of men have little chance when it is very cold and the storm lasts. And, if you recall it, the nor'wester was blowing for three days on end, stiff enough-to flay you." ...
— Maria Chapdelaine - A Tale of the Lake St. John Country • Louis Hemon

... cold tigerish look upon me and tried out the whip. His muscles swelled when he drew back his arms, and made the whip hiss through the air. I was bound like Marsyas while Apollo was getting ready to flay me. ...
— Venus in Furs • Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

... affectionate, devoted as our mothers,—these were the joys of our Saturday nights in our underground diggings. We were absolutely happy. And we never tried to measure our happiness in those days, or gauge it, or flay it to see if it be dead or alive, false or real. Ah, the blessedness of that supreme unconsciousness which wrapped us as a mother would her babe, warming and caressing our hearts. We did not know then that happiness was a thing to be sought. We only ...
— The Book of Khalid • Ameen Rihani

... head-hiding ostrich. Didn't I see you staring at her as if you were about to have a fit? But it is just as I tell you: it's no go. She isn't the marrying kind. If you knew her, she'd be nice to you till she got a good chance to flay ...
— A Fool For Love • Francis Lynde

... upstairs," said Berry bitterly. "Or would you rather gouge out my eyes? Will you flay me alive? Because if so, I'll go and get the knives and things. What about after tea? Or would you ...
— The Brother of Daphne • Dornford Yates

... seem the more officious And flatt'ring of his health, there, they have had, At extreme fees, the college of physicians Consulting on him, how they might restore him; Where one would have a cataplasm of spices, Another a flay'd ape clapp'd to his breast, A third would have it a dog, a fourth an oil, With wild cats' skins: at last, they all resolved That, to preserve him, was no other means, But some young woman must be ...
— Volpone; Or, The Fox • Ben Jonson

... become effete. Drawn from a living wolf, the hide Should warm and smoking be applied. Sir Wolf, here, won't refuse to give His hide to cure you, as I live." The king was pleased with this advice. Flay'd, jointed, served up in a trice, Sir Wolf first wrapped the monarch up, Then furnish'd him whereon ...
— A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine • Jean de La Fontaine

... his voice: but his sick heart did mighty trouble rack, As, glad of countenance, he thrust the heavy anguish back. But they fall to upon the prey, and feast that was to dight, 210 And flay the hide from off the ribs, and bare the flesh to sight. Some cut it quivering into steaks which on the spits they run, Some feed the fire upon the shore, and set the brass thereon. And so meat bringeth might again, and on the grass ...
— The AEneids of Virgil - Done into English Verse • Virgil

... and all the proper "reglars." Bless you, I could sell a new suit of clothes there every year, instead of having to wear the last keeper's cast-offs, and a hat that would disgrace anything but a flay-crow. If the linin' wasn't stuffed full of gun-waddin' it would be over my nose,' he observed, taking it off and adjusting the layer of wadding ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees

... lath; that you must put on, and go up to the castle and say your name is "Katie Woodencloak", and ask for a place. But before you go, you must take your penknife and cut my head off, and then you must flay me, and roll up the hide, and lay it under the wall of rock yonder, and under the hide you must lay the copper leaf, and the silver leaf, and the golden apple. Yonder, up against the rock, stands a stick; and when you want ...
— Popular Tales from the Norse • Sir George Webbe Dasent

... intimate with him. He will find him, of course, in Biographical Dictionaries, Directories of the City of the Great Dead, which only tell you where men lived, and what they did to deserve a place in the volume; but as to a life of him, strictly speaking, there is none. Oldys and Cobbett tried to flay him alive in pamphlets; Sherwin and Clio Rickman were prejudiced friends and published only panegyrics. All are out of print and difficult to find. Cheetham's work is a political libel; and the attempt of Mr. Vail of the "Beacon" to canonize ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 21, July, 1859 • Various

... poverty, of his hard life with no glimmer of light in it. Then he thought of the rich, of their big houses and their carriages, of their hundred-rouble notes.... How nice it would be if the houses of these rich men—the devil flay them!—were smashed, if their horses died, if their fur coats and sable caps got shabby! How splendid it would be if the rich, little by little, changed into beggars having nothing, and he, a poor shoemaker, were to become rich, and were ...
— The Schoolmistress and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... escape into the wood. As soon as they saw it and knew from the signs I made that it was dead, they began to advance cautiously in the direction where it lay. I went first, with my knife drawn ready to flay it. They now crept forward, two or three of the bolder ones in front of the rest, when they would stop and gaze at the creature, talking to each other, even now apparently having some doubt whether it was dead or not. ...
— The Two Supercargoes - Adventures in Savage Africa • W.H.G. Kingston

... cry and wail whene'er ye spy a cat, Starving or sick; I count it not a sin To hang it up, and flay it ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 • Various

... this connection, it is sadly eloquent! The poor whom she visited were basely ungrateful for her doles, and when she approached empty-handed, took the occasion to pay a visit to a neighbour's back yard, leaving her to flay her knuckles ...
— Big Game - A Story for Girls • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... He died of the tremens, as crazy as a loon, And his friends were glad, when the end came soon. There goes the hearse, the mourners cry, The respectable hearse goes slowly by. And now, good friends, since you see how it ends, Let each nation-mender flay the red bar-tender,— Abhor The transgression Of the red bar-tender,— Ruin The profession Of the red bar-tender: Force him into business where his work does good. Let him learn how to plough, let him learn to chop wood, Let him ...
— Chinese Nightingale • Vachel Lindsay

... at last, dull peasants, What the end will be? Your fathers Once gave up their little finger; Now they want to seize the whole hand. Only give it, and you'll soon see, How they'll flay your very skin off! Who can really thus compel us? In his woods free lives the peasant, Nothing but the sun above him. So it stands in our old records, In the statutes of our union: Nothing there of rent and socage, Nothing of a bondman's service! But there's danger we shall ...
— The Trumpeter of Saekkingen - A Song from the Upper Rhine. • Joseph Victor von Scheffel

... course towards the animals I had shot on the previous evening, meeting with no game except a large troop of dog-faced baboons (Cynocephali), until we reached the body of the tetel (Antelopus Bubalis), which lay undisturbed; leaving people to flay it carefully, so that the skin should serve as a water or corn sack, we continued our path towards the ...
— The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia • Samuel W. Baker

... pray you, ye chiefs of Jacob, And ye judges of the house of Israel! You surely ought to know what is just! Yet, you hate good and love evil; You who devour the flesh of my people, Flay their skin from off of them, And ...
— Stories of the Prophets - (Before the Exile) • Isaac Landman

... the hand the whilst," continued the Norman; and, as they parted at the postern door, he thrust in Cedric's reluctant hand a gold [v]byzant, adding, "Remember, I will flay off both cowl and skin if ...
— The Literary World Seventh Reader • Various

... credulous, nor despise everything. If one Indian accuses another, he should ascertain, before all else, whether they have quarreled. He must not be all honey, nor all gall. He should punish, but not flay off the skin. If the Indian knows that there is no whip near, the village will be quickly lost. A good beating at the proper time is the best antidote for all sorts of poisons; for, in the end, fear guards the vineyard. In punishments, ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol 28 of 55) • Various

... was in the tree, Alive, sir, flay me, if I did not see You on the verdant lawn my lady lay, And kiss, and toy, ...
— The Tales and Novels, Complete • Jean de La Fontaine

... was determined, should do its fell work with no response from him, terrible as he knew that punishment would be; they might kill him, they might flay him alive, but they could not reduce his stubborn pride as no doubt they hoped to do. This spirit bore him through those few moments that preceded the first words of his mock interrogation, but he felt himself shrink on the floor when he saw the slightest movement on the part ...
— Under the Rebel's Reign • Charles Neufeld

... drew him up so that he seemed to me an otter. I knew now the name of every one of them, so had I noted them when they were chosen, and when they had called each other I had listened how. "O Rubicante, see thou set thy claws upon him so thou flay him," shouted ...
— The Divine Comedy, Volume 1, Hell [The Inferno] • Dante Alighieri

... tribute of the province, and, doubtless, with the view of making his court to the emperor, remitted to him a much larger sum than was customary; that prince, who, in the beginning of his reign, thought, or at least spoke justly, answered, "that it was his design not to flay, but to ...
— The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, • Charles Rollin

... bitter thoughts I've had To silence fellows and to flay 'em, But next day always I've been glad I wasn't quick enough ...
— A Heap o' Livin' • Edgar A. Guest

... them all safely, the old man sat down on a bench before the cellar and began sharpening a knife. And the bear said to him, "Tell me, daddy, what are you sharpening your knife for?"—"To flay your skin off, that I may make a leather jacket for myself and a pelisse for my old wife."—"Oh! don't flay me, daddy dear! Rather let me go, and I'll bring you a lot of honey."—"Very well, see you do it," and he unbound and ...
— Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales • Anonymous

... front door and ring the bell," suggested George promptly. "Say we are benighted travellers and have lost our way. The bonde can but flay us. The operation, I believe, is painful, but it cannot ...
— Thelma • Marie Corelli

... Angel cracked his helmet and sniffed. "Guk," he said. "If I ever faint and someone gives me smelling salts, I'll flay him alive with a ...
— Unwise Child • Gordon Randall Garrett

... superiority of the female of the species as it has evolved in the countries of the South. Cleanliness and frugality in Remedios took the form of unendurable tyranny. She scolded her husband if he brought the slightest speck of dust into the house on his shoes. She would turn the place upside down, flay all the servants alive, if ever a few drops of oil were spilled from a jar, or a crumb of bread were wasted on ...
— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... to the waist, lashed fast to the trunk, writhing with pain and terror; his brutal tormentors grouped around him in the glare of the flames, preparing, with laughter, oaths, and much loose, leisurely swaggering, to flay his ...
— Cudjo's Cave • J. T. Trowbridge

... hanged and dead, they've summoned (With Hell to aid, that hears them pray) New legions of an army dread, Now down the blue sky flames the day; The dew dies off; the foul array Of obscene ravens gathers and goes, With wings that flap and beaks that flay: This is King ...
— Essays in Little • Andrew Lang

... greater esteem with the King than before, and Red was all the more discontented. One day he came to the King and said, 'If Ring is such a mighty man, I think you might ask him to kill the wild oxen in the wood here, and flay them the same day, and bring you the horns and ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang

... me and I held my hand, saying to the herd, "Bring me other than this." Then cried my cousin, "Slay her, for I have not a fatter nor a fairer!" Once more I went forward to sacrifice her, but she again lowed aloud upon which in ruth I refrained and commanded the herdsman to slay her and flay her. He killed her and skinned her but found in her neither fat nor flesh, only hide and bone; and I repented when penitence availed me naught. I gave her to the herdsman and said to him, "Fetch me a fat calf;" so he brought ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... you please. Pile bricks upon him: stuff his nose with acid: Flay, rack him, hoist him; flog him with a scourge Of prickly bristles: only not with this, A soft-leaved onion, ...
— The Frogs • Aristophanes

... started back, searing couplets forming with incredible swiftness in her brain. How she would flay Johnny Jewel with the keen blade of her wit! If he thought he was the only person at the Rolling R ranch who could write poetry, it would be a real kindness to show him ...
— Skyrider • B. M. Bower

... labours with, on the apprehensions of death, and future judgment?—How sit the reflections that must have been raised by the perusal of this letter upon thy yet unclosed eyelet-holes? Will not some serious thoughts mingle with thy melilot, and tear off the callus of thy mind, as that may flay the leather from thy back, and as thy epispastics may strip the parchment from thy plotting head? If not, then indeed is thy conscience seared, and no hopes will ...
— Clarissa Harlowe, Volume 9 (of 9) - The History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson

... blooming here and there. He broke off a stalk and stuck it in his hat; he determined to be merry and of good cheer, for he was going into the wide world—"a little way outside the door, in front of the hay," as the young eels had said. "Beware of bad people, who will catch you and flay you, cut you in two, and put you in the frying-pan!" he repeated in his mind, and smiled, for he thought he should find his way through the world—good courage is ...
— What the Moon Saw: and Other Tales • Hans Christian Andersen

... began his speech by declaring that he had no intention of calling in question the principles of religious liberty. He utterly disclaims persecution, that is to say, persecution as defined by himself. It would, in his opinion, be persecution to hang a Jew, or to flay him, or to draw his teeth, or to imprison him, or to fine him; for every man who conducts himself peaceably has a right to his life and his limbs, to his personal liberty and his property. But it is not persecution, says my honourable friend, to exclude any individual or any class from office; ...
— The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 4 (of 4) - Lord Macaulay's Speeches • Thomas Babington Macaulay



Words linked to "Flay" :   pare, skin, peel



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