flay

flay

See also: Flay

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: flā, IPA^(key): /fleɪ/
• (dialectal) enPR: flē, IPA^(key): /fliː/[1]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ

Etymology 1

From Middle English flayen, flaien, fleien, from Old English *flīeġan ("to cause to fly, put to flight, frighten"; found only in compounds: āflīeġan), from Proto-Germanic *flaugijaną (“to let fly, cause to fly”), causative of Proto-Germanic *fleuganą (“to fly”).

Alternative forms

• fla (Yorkshire)
• fley, flee, fly, fleg, flae, flea (Scotland)

Verb

flay (third-person singular simple present flays, present participle flaying, simple past and past participle flayed)

1. (transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To cause to fly; put to flight; drive off (by frightening).
2. (transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To frighten; scare; terrify.
   • 1979, “The Trial”, in The Wall, performed by Pink Floyd:

     If they'd let me have my way, I could have flayed him into shape

3. (intransitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To be fear-stricken.

Derived terms

• flaying

Noun

flay (plural flays)

1. (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A fright; a scare.
2. (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Fear; a source of fear; a formidable matter; a fearsome or repellent-looking individual.

Derived terms

• flaysome

Etymology 2

From Middle English flen, from Old English flēan, from Proto-West Germanic *flahan, from Proto-Germanic *flahaną.

Verb

flay (third-person singular simple present flays, present participle flaying, simple past flayed, past participle flayed or (obsolete) flain)

1. To strip the skin off; to skin.
   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 113:

     The farmer flayed him as he had the bear, and so he had both bear-skin and fox-skin.

2. To lash or whip.

Synonyms

• (remove the skin of): fleece, flense, skin

Derived terms

• beflay
• unflayed

Translations

to strip skin off

Arabic: سَلَخَ‎ (salaḵa) Egyptian Arabic: سلخ‎ (salaḵ) Aromanian: bilescu Bulgarian: одирам (bg) (odiram) Czech: stáhnout kůži pf, stáhnout z kůže pf Dutch: villen (nl), stropen (nl) Finnish: nylkeä (fi) French: écorcher (fr) Galician: esfolar (gl) German: häuten (de) Greek: Ancient: δέρω (dérō) Hungarian: nyúz (hu) Italian: spellare (it) Japanese: 剥ぐ (はぐ, hagu), 剥ぎ取る (はぎとる, hagitoru) Kabuverdianu: sfola, sfolá Kazakh: сою (soü) Latin: dēglūbō, dēcutiō Lithuanian: dìrti Maori: tīhore Norwegian: flå (no) Ottoman Turkish: یوزمك‎ (yüzmek) Polish: oskalpować Portuguese: esfolar (pt) Quechua: iqhay Romanian: beli (ro) Russian: свежева́ть (ru) (sveževátʹ), сдира́ть шку́ру (sdirátʹ škúru) Sicilian: spiḍḍari Slovak: stiahnuť kožu pf, stiahnuť pf, odrať pf Spanish: desollar (es), despellejar (es) Swedish: flå (sv), flänga (sv) Turkish: yüzmek (tr) Ukrainian: здирати шкіру impf (zdyraty škiru), здерти шкіру pf (zderty škiru) Westrobothnian: krapp a

References

1. Bingham, Caleb (1808), “Improprieties in Pronunciation, common among the people of New-England”, in The Child's Companion; Being a Conciſe Spelling-book […] ‎, 12th edition, Boston: Manning & Loring, OCLC 671561968, page 75.

Anagrams

• Alfy