flesh

Meanings

Noun

• The soft tissue of the body, especially muscle and fat.
• The skin of a human or animal.
• Bare arms, bare legs, bare torso.
• Animal tissue regarded as food; meat (but sometimes excluding fish).
• The human body as a physical entity.
• The mortal body of a human being, contrasted with the spirit or soul.
• The evil and corrupting principle working in man.
• The soft, often edible, parts of fruits or vegetables.
• Tenderness of feeling; gentleness.
• Kindred; stock; race.
• A yellowish pink colour; the colour of some Caucasian human skin.

Verb

• To reward (a hound, bird of prey etc.) with flesh of the animal killed, to excite it for further hunting; to train (an animal) to have an appetite for flesh.
• To bury (something, especially a weapon) in flesh.
• To inure or habituate someone in or to a given practice.
• To glut.
• To put flesh on; to fatten.
• To remove the flesh from the skin during the making of leather.

Origin

• From Middle English flesh, flesch, flæsch, from Old English flǣsċ, from Proto-West Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ-