Flesh (as opposed to fish and vegetables) as an article of food; also pl. various kinds of food consisting of flesh.
In some northern dialects applied to ‘butchers’ meat as opposed to bacon or pork.’
c. 1020. Laws Cnut, § 47. Ȝyt wyrse þæt man mid flæsc-mete hine sylfne afyle [riht fæsten-tide].
a. 1154. O. E. Chron., an. 1131. Þa scyrte ða flesc mete.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 13. Wednes-day ich wyke · wiþ-outen flech-mete.
1564. Child Marriages (E.E.T.S.), 200. Beinge askid ‘howe she knoweth it was done apon a Thursdaie’; she saies, ‘bie her supper; and biecause they made an end of flesh meat that night for that weke.’
1698. Keill, Exam. Th. Earth (1734), 212–3. Really as hard and unmerciful as it is, there are a very considerable number of people in these cold Countries, the greatest part of whose Food, is Bread, Herbs, Roots, Milk, Cheese, and the like; and who seldom tast any Flesh-meats. And why might not the Antediluvians lead the same kind of life?
1848. Secret Soc. Mid. Ages, Templars, 254. They had flesh-meat but three times a week, unless when festival-days occurred.
attrib. 1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 419. A foreigner, who wishes to pass for a Roman Catholic, needs only to stick to his window an attestation, by a physician, that his state of health requires a flesh-meat diet; and he may, without any risk, eat flesh-meat in Lent.
