Flay v.

Pa. t. and pa. pple. flayed. Forms: 1–3 flean, 3 flan, 3–4 flen, flo, 4 flaȝe, 4–5 flyȝe, flyghe, 5 fla, fle, 5–6, 8–9 dial. flee, 5–7, 9 dial. fley, 3–9 flea, 6–7 flaye, 6– flay. Also (see esp. sense 5) 6–7, 8–9 dial. flaw(e. Pa. t. 3 south. vloȝ, 3–4 flow, 4 flouh, 4–5 flogh, flew; 6 fleyd(e, fleid, 7–8 flead, 6– flayed. Pa. pple. 3 ivlaȝen, flo, 4 vlaȝe, yflawe, 4–7 flain(e, flayn(e, 5 fleyn, fleyen, 5–6 flawe(n, 6 flene, fleine, 6–7 flean(e; 5–6 fleyed, fleyd, 6–7 flawed, 6–8 fleed, flead, flea’d, 7–9 fleaed, 7 fled, flaid, flaied, 6– flayed. [A Com. Teut. str. vb.:—OE. fléan (pa. t. *flóȝ, pl. *flóȝon, pa. pple. *flaȝen) = MDu. vlaen, vlaeghen, vlaeden, ON. flả (Sw. flȧ, Da. flaae):—OTeut. *flahan, f. Aryan root *plăk-, whence Gr. πλήσσειν to strike. Cf. FLAKE sb.², FLAW sb.¹ and ².]

  1.  trans. To strip or pull off the skin or hide of; to skin: a. with object a person: often in to flay alive (or † quick).

a. 800.  Corpus Gloss., 659. Deglobere, flean.

c. 1205.  Lay., 6418. Oðer he heom lette quic flan.

c. 1300.  Havelok, 611.

1430.  Lydgate, Chronicle of Troy, I. iii.

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, 28. He dyd hym to be flayn al quyk.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 293. These people [Scythians] were Idolatours before the duke compelled them to baptisme, and appoynted a bysshop ouer them named Steuen, whom the Barbarians after the departure of the duke, fleyde alyue and slewe.

1687.  Congreve, Old Bach., II. i. No doubt, they would have flea’d me alive, have sold my Skin, and devour’d my Members.

1709.  Prior, Paulo Purganti, 49.

1799.  Sporting Mag., XV. Oct., 51/2. Montesquieu, after remarking that the feelings of all northern nations are more blunt than those of people nearer the sun, says, in illustration of his position, that you must flea a Muscovite to make him feel.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. v. 158. Your friend the harper, whom if I catch, I flay alive.

  b.  with object an animal.

c. 1302.  Pol. Songs (Camden), 191.

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 1682. Men … þat fast fonden alday · to flen wilde bestes.

c. 1420.  Liber Cure Cocorum (1862), 50.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, Eiij b.

1558.  Warde, trans. Alexis Secr., III. 73 b. Than kyll him [a young crow] and flawe him, breakinge the fleshe into smal pieces.

1681.  Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., xxxix. § 12 (1689), 26. Take Eels, flea, gut and wipe them clean, and cut them in pieces.

1737.  Compl. Fam.-Piece, I. ii. 136. To dress a Hare. Flea your Hare, and lard it with Bacon.

1849.  G. P. R. James, The Woodman, vii. Whole deer were often brought in to be broken and flayed, as the terms were, and prepared for cooking, before they were sent down to the more delicate hands of the abbey.

  absol.  1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. § 65 (1632), 340. Notwithstanding to them which thinke it alwayes imperfect reformation that doth but sheare and not flea, our retaining certaine of those former Rites, especially the dangerous signe of the Crosse hath seemed almost an impardonable ouer-sight.

  2.  To strip off or remove portions of the skin (or analogous membrane) from; to excoriate. Often hyperbolically (cf. scarify).

c. 1250.  Meid Maregrete, xxxvi. Mit swopes ant mlt scorges habbe ye me flo.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., A. 808. With boffeteȝ watȝ hys face flayn.

1482.  Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 73. Sum of hem had her fyngers f[l]ayne and some had hem by knockyng sore broysyd.

1565–73.  Cooper, Thesaurus, Aduri … to be flawed, to be scorched, as mens thies or legs be with fretting.

1596.  Colse, Penelope (1880), 168.

1610.  B. Jonson, Alch., IV. iii.

1628.  Donne, Serm., liv. 546. If thou flea thy selfe with haire-cloathes, and whips, it is nothing towards satisfaction of that infinite Majesty, which thou hast violated, and wounded by thy sin.

1659.  Lovelace, Poems (1864), 233.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Ess. Georg. (1721), I. 206. The Goats and Oxen are almost flead with Cold.

1717.  trans. Frezier’s Voy. S. Sea, 270. The Taste of it is so harsh, that it fleas the Tongues of such as are not used to it, occasions the spitting of a loathsome Froth, and makes the Indians, who chew it continually, stink abominably.

1721.  Cibber, Rival Fools, III. I’gad he wou’d have flea’d your Backside for you.

1840.  Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., 5 Oct., I. 120. And now I am but recovering, as white as the paper I write upon, and carrying my head as one who had been making a failed attempt at suicide; for, in the ardour of my medical practice, I flayed the whole neck of me with a blister.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng. (1871), II. xv. 171. It might have been supposed that the prospect of dying in Newgate, with a back flayed and an eye knocked out, would not have seemed very attractive.

  3.  fig. and transf.

  a.  To inflict acute pain or torture upon.

1782.  Cowper, Progr. Err., 583.

1884.  L. J. Jennings, Croker Papers, II. xiv. 49. Macaulay has laid bare the entire process of flaying an author—first the threat to dust his jacket; then the urgent request to be allowed to review the book; lastly, the article itself, laden with charges prompted by the overwhelming desire for vengeance.

  b.  To divest (a person) of clothing; to ‘strip,’ undress. humorous nonce-use.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 655. Cam. Nay prethee dispatch: the Gentleman is halfe fled already.

  c.  To strip (a person) of his money or belongings by extortion or exaction; to pillage, plunder. Also, to do this by cheating; to ‘clean out.’ Cf. fleece, shear.

1584.  Powel, Lloyd’s Cambria, 345. When those officers through their rauine and extortion were enriched, other more hungrie than they were sent afresh to flea those whom the other had shorne before: so that the people wished rather to die than liue in such oppression.

1620.  Melton, Astrolog., 3. The Bramble, as I walk’d by, scratch’t me by the Legges, which put mee in mind of a griping Lawyer, that neuer meetes with a Clyent, but hee will bee sure to fleece him, if hee do not flea him.

1620.  Frier Rush, 21. I haue beene among players at the Dice and Cardes, and I haue caused them to sweare many great oathes, and the one to flea the other.

1621.  Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. IV. (1651), 157. They are commonly so preyed vpon by poling officers for breaking Lawes, by their tyrannising land-lords, so flead and fleeced by perpetuall exactions, that though they doe drudge and fare hard, and starue their Genius, they cannot liue in some countries.

1665.  Temple, Lett. to Ld. Arlington, Wks. 1731, II. 6. The Hollanders they were certainly never worse at their Ease than now, being braved and beaten both at Sea and Land; flay’d with Taxes, distracted with Factions, and their last Resourse, which is the Protection of France, poison’d with extreme Jealousies; yet that must be their Game, or else a perfect truckling Peace with England.

1879.  Froude, Cæsar, xxii. 381. Scipio had come leisurely through Asia Minor, plundering cities and temples and flaying the people with requisitions.

1893.  Farmer, Slang, Flay … 2. (American).—To clean out by unfair means.

  d.  To strip (a building, or the like) of its exterior ornament or covering.

1636.  Davenant, Witts, V. v. How! flea monuments of their brazen skins!

1670.  J. Covel, Diary (Hakl., 1893), 182. Over their church door they have fixt a pittyful marble stone, which they saved out of the ruines of an old castle that was here; it was all flead to build the Turkish moschs, which are at least 12 in all.

1687.  Burnet, Trav., iii. (1750), 169. The Church and Chapel of St. Laurence exceeds them all, as much in the Riches within, as it is inferiour to them in the Outside, which is quite flay’d, if I may so speak, but on design to give it a rich Outside of Marble.

1847.  Tennyson, The Princess, V. 512.

  4.  To strip or peel off (the skin). Also with off, † up.

c. 1150.  Meid Maregrete, xxxiv. Al þet fel from þe fleisc gunnen ho to flo.

1382.  Wyclif, Micah, iii. 3. Whiche eeten fleshe of my peple, and hildiden, or flewen, the skyn of hem fro aboue.

1450.  Henryson, Wolf & Wedder, 39, Poems (1865), 204.

1587.  L. Mascal, Govt. Cattel, Hogges, 267. They doe vse to slit it in the midst, as long as the inflamation or sore is, and then flea vp the skinne on both sides the slits, so farre as the sore is.

c. 1626.  Dick of Devon, V. i., in Bullen, O. Pl., II. 97. Whosoever lays a foul hand upon her linnen in scorne of her bounty were as good flea the Divells skin over his eares.

1646.  Evelyn, Diary, 23 March. As it snows often, so it perpetualy freezes, of which I was so sensible that it flaw’d the very skin of my face.

1651.  H. More, Second Lash, in Enthus. Triumph. (1655), 168. If you did not walk as all touchy proud men doe, as it were with their skins flean off, such a light thing as this would not smart nor hurt you so sore.

1743.  Fielding, J. Wild, III. vii. The first man who offers to come in here, I will have his skin flea’d off at the gangway.

1865.  Swinburne, Atalanta, 58.

  transf. and fig.  1607.  Dekker, Northw. Hoe, II. Wks. 1873, III. 28. Flea off your skins [i.e., take off your disguise], you pretious Caniballs.

1654.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 530. For the World, how by Losses do we gain a true discovery of its Bracteata felicitas, Tinselled happinesse, out-side filme of Contentednesse, which when flaid off, what appeareth but vanity, or vexation of Spirit.

  † b.  To tear off (a man’s beard) together with the skin. Obs.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 12452.

c. 1450.  Merlin, 620. I shall come vpon the with all myn hoste, and make thy beerde be flayn, and drawe from thy chyn boustously.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, I. xxvii. They gaf hym their berdys clene flayne of.

  5.  transf. (chiefly dial.) a. To strip the bark, rind, husk, or other integument from; to bark, peel. b. To remove or strip off (rind, bark, etc.). Also with off. (Chiefly in form flaw.)

  a.  1574.  R. Scot, Hop Gard. (1578), 59. To flawe the Poales, thereby to prolonge their continuaunce, is more than needeth to bee done in this behalfe, for it is to tedious to your selfe, and hurtfull to your Hoppe.

1686.  Plot, Staffordsh., 382. They flaw it [Timber] standing about the beginning or middle of May.

1713.  Derham, Phys. Theol., IV. xi. 192. A thick, short, and sharp-edged Bill is as useful to other Birds, who have occasion to husk and flay the Grains they swallow.

1869.  Echo, 9 Oct. In Sussex … a man was believed to earn from £40 to £45 in the year, including what he gets from flawing timber in the spring.

  b.  c. 1320.  Cast. Love, 1308. As a mon þe rynde fleþ.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 74. Cutte it [a bud] round about, and flawe of the rinde.

1623.  Cockeram, II. To Fley or pull off the rinde or skin, Deglubate.

1631.  MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp., Canterb. [Layd out] for flawinge the tanne iiijs. ixd.

1796.  Trans. Soc. Encourag. Arts, XIV. 234. From the largest of those arms [of the tree], I flawed off slips of rind of about two or three inches in width, and placed four or five of them perpendicularly round the naked part of the body.

  c.  To pare or strip off thin slices of (turf). Also with off, up.

1634–5.  Brereton, Trav. (1844), 96. Here is a mighty want of fire in these moors; neither coal, nor wood, nor turf; only the cutt and flea top-turves with linge upon them.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. ix. 390/2. A Turf Spade: it is to cut and flea up the surface of any thing flat, or of the Earth into Sods, Turfs or Fleeces.

1724.  Swift, Drap. Lett., vii. Neither should that odious Custom be allowed, of cutting Scraws, (as they call them) which is flaying off the green Surface of the Ground, to cover their Cabbins, or make up their Ditches.

1869.  Peacock, Lonsdale Gloss., Flay, to pare turf with a breast plough.

  6.  Phrases. To flay a flint: to be guilty of the worst meanness or extortion in order to get money. (cf. FLAY-FLINT). † To flay the fox: to vomit (translating F. slang écorcher le renard).

1653.  Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xi. (1694), 42. He would flay the Fox, say the Ape’s Paternoster.

1659.  Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 398. Some of them were so strict that they would flea a flint.

a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Flay, He’ll flay a Flint, of a meer Scrat or Miser.

  † 7.  ? To clarify (oil). Obs. rare^–1 [Perh. a different word.]

1530.  Palsgr., 551/1. I flaye oyle with water, whan it boyleth, to make it mete to frye fysshe with. Je detaingz lhuyle.

  8.  Comb. † Flaybreech, a flogger.

1671.  H. M., trans. Colloq. Erasmus, 49. He is a more cruel flaybreech than even Orbilius.

  Hence Flayed († flayn) ppl. a.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 163/2. Flayne, or flawyn, excoriatus.

1585.  T. Lupton, A Thousand Notable Things of Sundry Sortes (1675), 10. A flea’d mouse, roasted, or made in powder, and drank at one time, doth perfectly help such as cannot hold or keep their water.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. III. Furies, 466.

a. 1613.  Overbury, A Wife (1638), 100. His Iests are either old flead Prouerbs, or leane-steru’d-hack.

a. 1652.  Brome, City Wit, V. Wks. 1873, I. 363. The fresh skin of a flead Cat.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., X. 634.

1835.  Gentl. Mag., Feb., 192/2. A wasted and emaciated hand is pourtrayed with exceeding fidelity, and the loose flayed skin which belonged to the arms is horribly correct.