Word.ws English Dictionary

flesh

/flɛʃ/

flesh noun: the soft tissue of the body, especially muscle and fat.

Noun

flesh (usually uncountable, plural fleshes)

  1. (usually) The soft tissue of the body, especially muscle and fat.
    • The flesh of chicken, fowl, and turkey has much shorter fibre than that of ruminating animals, and is not intermingled with fat,—the fat always being found in layers directly under the skin, and surrounding the intestines.1918, Fannie Farmer, Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Chapter XVII: Poultry and Game
  2. (usually) The skin of a human or animal.
  3. (broadly, usually) Bare arms, bare legs, bare torso.
  4. (usually) Animal tissue regarded as food; meat (but sometimes excluding fish).
    • Thenne syr launcelot sayd / fader what shalle I do / Now sayd the good man / I requyre yow take this hayre that was this holy mans and putte it nexte thy skynne / and it shalle preuaylle the gretely / syr and I wille doo hit sayd sir launcelot / Also I charge you that ye ete no flesshe as longe as...1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “ij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XV
    • The fleſh that twycheth any vnclene thinge ſhall not be eaten. but burnt with fire: and all that be clene in their fleſh, maye eate fleſh. Yf any ſoule eate of the fleſh of the peaceofferynges, that pertayne vnto the Lorde and hys vnclenneſſe yet apon him, the ſame ſoule ſhall periſſhe from amonge...1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Leuiticus...
  5. (usually) The human body as a physical entity.
    • And the preaſt ſhall put on his lynen albe and his lynen breches apon his fleſh, and take awaye the aſſhes whiche the fire of the burntſacrifice in the altare hath made, and put them beſyde the alter, […]1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Leuiticus...
    • In my political/cultural mythology Carl remained this larger-than-life figure […] But knowing Carl, the fantasy made flesh, was a different experience. The keen mind that wrote "A Gay Manifesto" was even more perceptive and challenging in real life.1986 February 15, Michael Bronski, “Carl Wittman: An Activist's Life”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 31, page 7
  6. (usually) The mortal body of a human being, contrasted with the spirit or soul.
    • For all flesh is as grasse, and all the glory of man as the flowre of grasse: the grasse withereth, and the flowre thereof falleth away.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Peter 1:24
    • For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that yee cannot doe the things that yee would.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Galatians 5:17
  7. (usually) The evil and corrupting principle working in man.
  8. (usually) The soft, often edible, parts of fruits or vegetables.
    • The flesh of black walnuts was a protein-packed winter food carefully hoarded in tall, stilted buildings.2003, Diana Beresford-Kroeger, Arboretum America: A Philosophy of the Forest, page 81
  9. (obsolete, usually) Tenderness of feeling; gentleness.
    • There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart.1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC
  10. (obsolete, usually) Kindred; stock; race.
    • He is our brother and our flesh.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 37:27
  11. (usually) A yellowish pink color; the color of some Caucasian human skin.
    • She opened [...] a third that was the peachy white that crayon companies used to call “flesh”.2018, Tayari Jones, An American Marriage, Oneworld Publications, page 243

Verb

flesh (third-person singular simple present fleshes, present participle fleshing, simple past and past participle fleshed)

  1. (transitive) 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.
    • Before they had fleshed the hounds, however, he recollected himself […].1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC
  2. (transitive) To bury (something, especially a weapon) in flesh.
    • Give me a clean sword and a clean foe to flesh it in.1933, Robert E. Howard, The Scarlet Citadel
  3. (obsolete) To inure or habituate someone in or to a given practice.
    • And whosoever could now joyne us together, and eagerly flesh all our people to a common enterprise, we should make our ancient military name and chivalrous credit to flourish againe.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 7, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
  4. (transitive) To glut.
  5. (transitive) To put flesh on; to fatten.
  6. To remove the flesh from the skin during the making of leather.

flesh meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

flesh in Hindi

body tissue
क्रव्य kravya, मांस māns
skin
त्वचा tvacā, चमड़ा camṛā, चमड़ी camṛī, खाल khāl
animal tissue as food
मांस māns, लहम laham, गोश्त gośt
(religion) mortal body
देह deh

flesh in Tamil

சதை, தசை

flesh in Marathi

flesh
मांस māusa
flesh, meat
मास mās

flesh in Urdu

body tissue
مانس mā̃s, گوشت gośt, لحم laham
skin
جلد jild, پوست post, کھال khāl
animal tissue as food
گوشت gośt, لحم laham
to remove the flesh
کھال اتارنا khāl utārnā
More languagesFewer languages
flesh in Bengali
মাংস maṅśo
flesh in Telugu
కండ kaṇḍa, గుజ్జు gujju
flesh in Malayalam
മാംസം māṁsaṁ, ഇറച്ചി iṟacci
flesh in Kannada
ಮಾಂಸ māṃsa, ಕಂಡ kaṇḍa, ಅಡಗು aḍagu, ಬಾಡು bāḍu
flesh in Gujarati
માંસ mā̃s
flesh in Odia
ମାଂସ māṁsa
flesh in Sanskrit
क्रव्य kravya
flesh in Assamese
মাংস maṅxo
flesh in Pashto
غوښه γwəxa
flesh in Arabic
لَحْم laḥm, لَحْمٌ laḥmun
flesh in Indonesian
daging, merah daging
flesh in Persian
گوشت gušt, پرواربندی parvaarbandi
flesh in Thai
เนื้อ nʉ́ʉa, เนื้อหนัง nʉ́ʉa-nǎng

Examples of flesh in a sentence

  • The fleſh that twycheth any vnclene thinge ſhall not be eaten. but burnt with fire: and all that be clene in their fleſh, maye eate fleſh.1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans...
  • Chicken is already the most popular meat in the US, and is projected to be the planet’s favourite flesh by 2020.2018 May 8, Raj Patel, Jason W Moore, “How the chicken nugget became the true symbol of our era”, in The Guardian:

All 40 example sentences with flesh

Forms of flesh

Noun
pluralfleshes
Verb
third-person singular presentfleshes
present participlefleshing
past participlefleshed
pastfleshed

Past tense of flesh: fleshed

Plural of flesh: fleshes

Origin of flesh

From Middle English flesh, flesch, flæsch, from Old English flǣsċ, from Proto-West Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- (“to tear, peel off”). Cognates Cognate with Yola vleash, vlesh (“flesh”), North Frisian flaasch, flaosk, Fleesk, fleäsk, floask, flääsk, flååsch (“flesh, meat”), Saterland Frisian Flaask (“flesh, meat”), West Frisian fleis (“flesh, meat”), Cimbrian blòas, vlaisch, vlòas (“flesh, meat”), Dutch vlees, vleesch (“flesh, meat”), German Fleisch (“flesh, meat”), German Low German and Luxembourgish Fleesch (“flesh, meat”), Vilamovian fłaś (“meat; muscle”), Yiddish פֿלייש (fleysh, “flesh, meat”), Danish flæsk (“pork; bacon”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk flesk (“pork; bacon”), Swedish fläsk (“pork”).

Words formed from flesh

Phrases with flesh

47 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with flesh

21 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about flesh

What does flesh mean?
Flesh means the soft tissue of the body, especially muscle and fat.
What is flesh in Hindi?
Flesh in Hindi is क्रव्य (kravya), मांस (māns), त्वचा (tvacā). See Flesh meaning in Hindi.
How do you use flesh in a sentence?
The fleſh that twycheth any vnclene thinge ſhall not be eaten. but burnt with fire: and all that be clene in their fleſh, maye eate fleſh.
What part of speech is flesh?
Flesh can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce flesh?
Flesh is pronounced /flɛʃ/.
What is the plural of flesh?
The plural of flesh is fleshes.

Words near flesh in the dictionary

  1. flerovium
  2. fleroxacin
  3. FLES
  4. Flesch
  5. Flesches
  6. flesh
  7. flesh and blood
  8. flesh and bone
  9. flesh and bones
  10. flesh broth
  11. flesh broths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: flesh (page history and authors); flesh (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); मांस (Marathi) (page history and authors); মাংস (Bengali) (page history and authors); ಅಡಗು (Kannada) (page history and authors); માંસ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); মাংস (Assamese) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-flesh.ogg.

Cite this entry: “flesh.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flesh. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.