flays

Verb (1)

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

1. (Northern England, Scotland, UK, dialectal, transitive) To cause to fly; put to flight; drive off (by frightening).
2. (Northern England, Scotland, UK, dialectal, transitive) To frighten; scare; terrify.
   • If they'd let me have my way, I could have flayed him into shape1979, “The Trial”, in The Wall, performed by Pink Floyd
3. (Northern England, Scotland, UK, dialectal, intransitive) To be fear-stricken.

Verb (2)

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

1. To strip the skin off; to skin.
   • The farmer flayed him as he had the bear, and so he had both bear-skin and fox-skin.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 113

   Synonyms:

   fleece, flense, skin

2. To lash or whip.

See all 8 meanings of flay