| 释义 |
▪ I. flay, n. dial.|fleɪ|
[f. flay v.]
A part of a plough, for ‘flaying’ or paring off the surface of the ground.
1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 8 An iron earth⁓board firmly screwed to the coulter, which in some places is called a flay. 1879G. 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).
a800Corpus Gloss. 659 Deglobere, flean. c1205Lay. 6418 Oðer he heom lette quic flan. c1300Havelok 612 He shal him hangen, or quik flo. 1430Lydg. Chron. Troy i. iii, Out of his skynne he hath him stript and flawe. 1474Caxton Chesse 28 He dyd hym to be flayn al quyk. 1555Eden Decades 261 Whom the Barbarians fleyde alyue and slewe. 1687Congreve Old Bach. ii. i, No doubt, they would have flea'd me alive. 1709Prior Paulo Purganti, They should be hang'd or starv'd, or flead. 1800Sporting Mag. XV. 51 You must flea a Muscovite to make him feel. 1865Kingsley Herew. v. 109 If I catch him, I will flay him alive.
b. with object an animal.
c1302Pol. Songs (Camden) 191 We shule flo the Conyng, ant make roste is loyne. c1350Will. Palerne 1682 Men..that fast fonden alday to flen wilde bestes. c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 50 Fyrst flyghe thyn elys. 1486Bk. St. Albans E iij b, Now to speke of the bestes when thay be slayne How many be strypte and how many be flayne. 1558Warde tr. Alexis Secr. iii. 73 b, Than kyll him [a young crow] and flawe him. 1681J. Chetham Angler's Vade-m. xxxix. §12 (1689) 26 Take Eels, flea, gut and wipe them. 1741Compl. Fam. Piece i. ii. 136 Flea your Hare, and lard it with Bacon. 1849James Woodman vii., Whole deer were often brought in to be broken and flayed.
absol.1597Hooker 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).
c1250Meid Maregrete xxxvi, Mit swopes ant mit scorges habbe ye me flo. 13..E.E. Alit. P. A. 809 With boffetez watz hys face flayn. 1482Monk of Evesham (Arb.) 73 Sum of hem had her fyngers f[l]ayne. 1565–73Cooper Thesaurus, Aduri..to be flawed, to be scorched, as mens thies or legs be with fretting. 1596P. Colse Penelope (1880) 168 These fingers should have flead his face. 1610B. Jonson Alch. iv. iii, You shall..Be curried, claw'd, and flaw'd, and taw'd, indeed. 1628Donne Serm. liv. 546 If thou flea thy selfe with haire cloathes and whips. 1659Lovelace Poems (1864) 233 Rayl, till your edged breath flea your raw throat. 1697Dryden Virg. Ess. Georg. (1721) I. 206 The Goats and Oxen are almost flead with Cold. 1721Cibber Rival Fools 111, I' gad he wou'd have flea'd your Backside for you. 1748Relat. 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. 1840Mrs. Carlyle Let. 5 Oct., In the ardour of my medical practice I flayed the whole neck of me with a blister. 1849Macaulay 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.
1782Cowper Progr. Err. 583 Habits are soon assum'd; but when we strive To strip them off, 'tis being flay'd alive. 1884L. 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.
1611Shakes. 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.
1584D. Powel Lloyd's Cambria 345 Officers were sent afresh to flea those who had been shorne before. 1620Melton Astrolog. 3 A griping Lawyer..will bee sure to fleece him, if hee do not flea him. 1620Frier Rush 21, I haue beene among players at the Dice and Cardes, and I haue caused..the one to flea the other. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iv. (1651) 157 They are..so flead and fleeced by perpetuall exactions. 1665Temple Let. to Ld. Arlington Wks. 1731 II. 6 The Hollanders..being..flay'd with Taxes, distracted with Factions. 1879Froude Cæsar xxii. 381 Plundering cities and temples and flaying the people with requisitions. 1893Farmer Slang, Flay..2 (American) To clean out by unfair means.
d. To strip (a building, or the like) of its exterior ornament or covering.
1636Davenant Witts v. v, How! flea monuments of their brazen skins! 1670J. Covel Diary (Hakl. 1893) 182 The ruins of an old castle that was here; it was all flead to build the Turkish moschs. 1687Burnet 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. 1847Tennyson 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.
c1250Meid Maregrete xxxiv, Al þet fel from þe fleisc gunnen ho to flo. 1382Wyclif Micah iii. 3 Whiche eeten fleshe of my peple and hildiden, or flewen, the skyn of hem fro aboue. c1450Henryson Wolf & Wedder 39 Poems (1865) 204 With that in hy the doggis skyn of he flew. 1587L. Mascall Govt. Cattle, Hogges 267 They doe vse to..flea vp the skinne on both sides. c1626Dick of Devon. v. i. in Bullen O. Pl. II. 97 Flea the Divells skin over his eares. 1646Evelyn 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. 1651H. More Second Lash in Enthus. Triumph. (1655) 168 Touchy, proud men..as it were with their skins flean off. 1743Fielding J. Wild iii. vii, The first man that offers to come in here, I will have his skin flea'd off. 1865Swinburne Atalanta 58 And we will flay thy boarskin with male hands.
transf. and fig.1607Dekker Northw. Hoe ii. Wks. 1873 III. 28 Flea off your skins [i.e. take off your disguise]. 1654Whitlock 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.
c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 12452 Fful manye kynges had he don slo, and flow þe berdes of alle þo. c1450Merlin 620, I shall..make thy beerde be flayn, and draw from thy chyn boustously. 1470–85Malory 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.1574R. Scot Hop Gard. (1578) 59 To flawe the Poales..is more than needeth to be done in thys behalfe. 1686Plot Staffordsh. 382 They flaw it [Timber] standing about the beginning or middle of May. 1713Derham Phys.-Theol. iv. xi. 192 Birds, who have occasion to husk and flay the Grains they swallow. 1869Echo 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.c1320Cast. Love 1308 As a mon þe rynde fleþ. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 74 Cutte it [a bud] round about, and flawe of the rinde. 1623Cockeram ii, To Fley or pull off the rinde or skin, Deglubate. 1631MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., [Layd out] for flawinge the tanne iiijs. ixd. 1796Trans. 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.
1634–5Brereton Trav. (1844) 96 They cutt and flea top⁓turves with linge upon them. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. ix. 390/2 A Turf Spade..is to cut and flea up the surface of any thing flat. 1724Swift Drap. Lett. vii, That odious Custom..of cutting Scraws..which is flaying off the green Surface of the Ground, to cover their cabins. 1869Lonsdale 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).
1653Urquhart Rabelais i. xi. (1694) 42 He would flay the Fox. 1659Burton's Diary (1828) IV. 398 Some of them were so strict that they would flea a flint. a1700B. 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.]
1530Palsgr. 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.
1671H. M. tr. Colloq. Erasmus 49 He is a more cruel flaybreech than even Orbilius.
Hence flayed († flayn) ppl. a.
c1440Promp. Parv. 163/2 Flayne, or flawyn, excoriatus. 1585Lupton Thous. Notable Th. (1675) 10 A fleaed Mouse roasted. 1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. Furies 467 The Dysentery..Extorteth pure bloud from the flayéd veins. a1613Overbury A Wife (1638) 100 His jests are..old flead Proverbs. a1652Brome City Wit v. Wks. 1873 I. 363 The fresh skin of a flea'd Cat. 1725Pope Odyss. x. 635 Let the flea'd victims in the flames be cast. 1835Gentl. Mag. Feb. 192/2 The loose flayed skin which belonged to the arms.
▪ III. flay
var. of fley v. to frighten. |