[f. FLAY v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. FLAY.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 165/2. Fleynge of beestys, excorlacio.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., Epist. (1593), 3. The fleaing off of piper Marsies skin.
1848. H. Rogers, Ess., I. vi. 321. Neither a bull-fight at Madrid, nor an execution in London, could have greater attraction for the refined populace of those cities, than the flaying and dissecting of a sophist at the hands of so dexterous an anatomist as Socrates, must have had for the intellectual and subtle youth of Athens.
2. attrib. and Comb., as flaying-knife, season, -shovel, -spade.
1842. Browning, Waring, I. vi.
| Some Junius—am I right? shall tuck | |
| His sleeve, and forth with *flaying-knife! | |
| Some Chatterton shall have the luck | |
| Of calling Rowley into life! |
1794. J. Boys, Agric. Surv. Kent, 97. The oaks are all cut in the *flawing season, for the bark of all sizes.
1887. Darlington, Folk-speech S. Cheshire, Gloss., *Fleyin-shovel, a sort of plough with a single long handle like a spade driven by the hand.
1573. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 242. iij. peatspades, ij. *flainge spades.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Flaying-spade, an implement for paring off the surface of rough grass land for burning.
