▪ I. flay, n. dial.
(fleɪ)
[f. flay v.]
A part of a plough, for ‘flaying’ or paring off the surface of the ground.
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 8 An iron earth⁓board firmly screwed to the coulter, which in some places is called a flay. 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Flay, part of a plough; it goes before the coulter and pares off the surface of the ground, turning it under the furrow which the plough makes. |
▪ II. flay, v.
(fleɪ)
Pa. tense 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. tense 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. tense *flóᵹ, pl. *flóᵹon, pa. pple. *flaᵹen) = MDu. vlaen, vlaeghen, vlaeden, ON. flá (Sw. flå, Da. flaae):—OTeut. *flahan, f. Aryan root *plā̆k-, whence Gr. πλήσσειν to strike. Cf. flake n.2, flaw n.1 and n.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 612 He shal him hangen, or quik flo. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. iii, Out of his skynne he hath him stript and flawe. 1474 Caxton Chesse 28 He dyd hym to be flayn al quyk. 1555 Eden Decades 261 Whom the Barbarians fleyde alyue and slewe. 1687 Congreve Old Bach. ii. i, No doubt, they would have flea'd me alive. 1709 Prior Paulo Purganti, They should be hang'd or starv'd, or flead. 1800 Sporting Mag. XV. 51 You must flea a Muscovite to make him feel. 1865 Kingsley Herew. v. 109 If I catch him, I will flay him alive. |
b. with object an animal.
| c 1302 Pol. Songs (Camden) 191 We shule flo the Conyng, ant make roste is loyne. c 1350 Will. Palerne 1682 Men..that fast fonden alday to flen wilde bestes. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 50 Fyrst flyghe thyn elys. 1486 Bk. St. Albans E iij b, Now to speke of the bestes when thay be slayne How many be strypte and how many be flayne. 1558 Warde tr. Alexis Secr. iii. 73 b, Than kyll him [a young crow] and flawe him. 1681 J. Chetham Angler's Vade-m. xxxix. §12 (1689) 26 Take Eels, flea, gut and wipe them. 1741 Compl. Fam. Piece i. ii. 136 Flea your Hare, and lard it with Bacon. 1849 James Woodman vii., Whole deer were often brought in to be broken and flayed. |
| absol. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. §65 (1632) 340 To them which thinke it alwayes imperfect reformation that doth but sheare and not flea. |
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 mit scorges habbe ye me flo. 13.. E.E. Alit. P. A. 809 With boffetez watz hys face flayn. 1482 Monk of Evesham (Arb.) 73 Sum of hem had her fyngers f[l]ayne. 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Aduri..to be flawed, to be scorched, as mens thies or legs be with fretting. 1596 P. Colse Penelope (1880) 168 These fingers should have flead his face. 1610 B. Jonson Alch. iv. iii, You shall..Be curried, claw'd, and flaw'd, and taw'd, indeed. 1628 Donne Serm. liv. 546 If thou flea thy selfe with haire cloathes and whips. 1659 Lovelace Poems (1864) 233 Rayl, till your edged breath flea your raw throat. 1697 Dryden Virg. Ess. Georg. (1721) I. 206 The Goats and Oxen are almost flead with Cold. 1721 Cibber Rival Fools 111, I' gad he wou'd have flea'd your Backside for you. 1748 Relat. Earthq. Lima iii. §3. 292 The Taste of it is so harsh, that it fleas the Tongues of such as are not used to it. 1840 Mrs. Carlyle Let. 5 Oct., 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 The prospect of dying in Newgate, with a back flayed and an eye knocked out. |
3. fig. and transf. a. To inflict acute pain or torture upon.
| 1782 Cowper Progr. Err. 583 Habits are soon assum'd; but when we strive To strip them off, 'tis being flay'd alive. 1884 L. J. Jennings Croker Papers II. xiv. 49 Macaulay has laid bare the entire process of flaying an author. |
b. To divest (a person) of clothing; to ‘strip’, undress. humorous nonce-use.
| 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 655 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 D. Powel Lloyd's Cambria 345 Officers were sent afresh to flea those who had been shorne before. 1620 Melton Astrolog. 3 A griping Lawyer..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..the one to flea the other. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iv. (1651) 157 They are..so flead and fleeced by perpetuall exactions. 1665 Temple Let. to Ld. Arlington Wks. 1731 II. 6 The Hollanders..being..flay'd with Taxes, distracted with Factions. 1879 Froude Cæsar xxii. 381 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 The ruins of an old castle that was here; it was all flead to build the Turkish moschs. 1687 Burnet Trav. iii. (1750) 169 The Outside..is quite flay'd, if I may so speak, but on design to give it a rich Outside of Marble. 1847 Tennyson Princ. v. 514 As comes a pillar of electric cloud, Flaying the roofs and sucking up the drains. |
4. To strip or peel off (the skin). Also with off, † up.
| c 1250 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. c 1450 Henryson Wolf & Wedder 39 Poems (1865) 204 With that in hy the doggis skyn of he flew. 1587 L. Mascall Govt. Cattle, Hogges 267 They doe vse to..flea vp the skinne on both sides. c 1626 Dick of Devon. v. i. in Bullen O. Pl. II. 97 Flea the Divells skin over his eares. 1646 Evelyn Diary 23 Mar., As it snows often 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 Touchy, proud men..as it were with their skins flean off. 1743 Fielding J. Wild iii. vii, The first man that offers to come in here, I will have his skin flea'd off. 1865 Swinburne Atalanta 58 And we will flay thy boarskin with male hands. |
| transf. and fig. 1607 Dekker Northw. Hoe ii. Wks. 1873 III. 28 Flea off your skins [i.e. take off your disguise]. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 530 [The world's] 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 Fful manye kynges had he don slo, and flow þe berdes of alle þo. c 1450 Merlin 620, I shall..make thy beerde be flayn, and draw 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..is more than needeth to be done in thys behalfe. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 382 They flaw it [Timber] standing about the beginning or middle of May. 1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. iv. xi. 192 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 {pstlg}40 to {pstlg}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, I flawed off slips of rind. |
c. To pare or strip off thin slices of (turf). Also with off, up.
| 1634–5 Brereton Trav. (1844) 96 They cutt and flea top⁓turves with linge upon them. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. ix. 390/2 A Turf Spade..is to cut and flea up the surface of any thing flat. 1724 Swift Drap. Lett. vii, That odious Custom..of cutting Scraws..which is flaying off the green Surface of the Ground, to cover their cabins. 1869 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. 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. tr. 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 Lupton Thous. Notable Th. (1675) 10 A fleaed Mouse roasted. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. Furies 467 The Dysentery..Extorteth pure bloud from the flayéd veins. a 1613 Overbury A Wife (1638) 100 His jests are..old flead Proverbs. a 1652 Brome City Wit v. Wks. 1873 I. 363 The fresh skin of a flea'd Cat. 1725 Pope Odyss. x. 635 Let the flea'd victims in the flames be cast. 1835 Gentl. Mag. Feb. 192/2 The loose flayed skin which belonged to the arms. |
▪ III. flay
var. of fley v. to frighten.