vbl. sb. [f. FLESH v. and sb. + -ING1.]
1. The action of inciting (hounds) to the chase by giving them a taste of flesh.
1576. Turberv., Venerie, 213. Bothe houndes and Greyhoundes will requyre greater fleshyng and encouragement to a Wolfe than to any other chace.
1611. Cotgr., Acharnement, a fleshing.
2. Leather-manuf. The action or process of scraping off the pieces of flesh, etc., adhering to the flesh-side of a skin; also pl. that which is scraped off.
1777. Macbride, in Phil. Trans., LXVIII. 114. The operation called fleshing, which consists in a further scraping, with a particular kind of knife contrived for the purpose, and cutting away the jagged extremities and offal parts, such as the ears and nostrils.
1860. Ure’s Dict. Arts (ed. 5), II. 676. The fleshings are pressed into cakes, and sold for making glue.
1885. A. Watt, Leather Manuf., xxvi. 323. Witnessing the unhairing and fleshing of calf skins by a machine of remarkable effectiveness.
3. (See quot., and cf. FLESH sb. 6.)
1598. Florio, Andar in Carnafau, to go a fleshing or a wenching.
4. Sc. ‘The business of a butcher’ (Jam., Suppl., 1825).
5. The distribution of the flesh on an animal.
1876. Daily News, 5 Dec., 2/1. The dainty shapes, undeniable style, and even fleshing of Sir W. C. Trevelyan’s beautiful white Irish and shorthorn cross.
6. pl. A close-fitting, flesh-colored garment of a light material, usually of silk, worn upon the stage to represent the natural skin; also fleshing-tights.
1838. D. Jerrold, Men of Character, J. Runnymede, v. Wks. 1864, III. 189. You will take the orders of the ladies for their dresses, and mind and be very particular with the fleshings.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1861), III. 118/2. Then I’m dressed up in fleshing tights, skin dress, and trunks.
1856. Alb. Smith, Sketches of Day, Ser. I. II. i. 9. No dense clouds of aromatic vapour, rolling in delicious and enervating volumes, have filled the room; neither has the carpet opened, the walls divided, nor the ceiling vanished, in allowing any lovely spirit, whose silk fleshings move in pliant grace beneath the transparent undulations of her book-muslin tunic, to visit our mundane, or rather our aërial apartment.
1879. Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, x. 178. Ophelia in fleshings and a voluminous brevity of grenadine will dance through the mad scene, finishing with the famous ‘attitude of the scissors’ in the arms of Laertes.
7. Comb., as fleshing-beam (see quot.); fleshing-board = prec.; fleshing-iron = next; fleshing-knife (see quot. 1839); fleshing-shop, the place where skins are fleshed; a beam-house.
1881. Leicestersh. Gloss., Flesh-beam, or *Fleshing-beam, a wooden instrument used by tanners and whittawers, on which is suspended the hide to be dressed, for the purpose of scraping off any remains of the flesh, &c.
1547. Aberdeen Reg., 17 Feb. Item, ane *flesching buird, with ane fuyt and ane *flesching jrne.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 764. The *fleshing knife; a large two handled implement with a blunt edge, and bent to suit the curvature of the rounded beam of the wooden horse upon which the hide is scraped.
1885. A. Watt, Leather Manuf., xxiv. 291. The goatskins, when ready for unhairing and fleshing, are removed to the *fleshing shop.
