Past tense of flay
regular verb
The past tense of flay is flayed. The past participle is also flayed.
Forms of flay
| Base form (V1) | flay /fleɪ/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | flayed /fleɪd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | flayed /fleɪd/ |
| Present participle | flaying /ˈfleɪ.ɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | flays /fleɪz/ |
Flayed in a sentence
- If they'd let me have my way, I could have flayed him into shape1979, “The Trial”, in The Wall, performed by Pink Floyd
- Rather than the flayed skin associated with the traditional saint, this Saint Bartholomew holds a sword or trident.2011, Judika Illes, Encyclopedia of Mystics, Saints & Sages. From the entry merdog
- They flayed their ponies with the shafts of their spears.1969 July, Norman Spinrad, “The Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde”, in New Worlds, number 192, London: New Worlds Publishing, page 26…. From the entry doddard
- There would have been nature studies – a tiger pursuing a bird of paradise, a choking snake sheathing whole the flayed trunk of a shoat.1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita. From the entry shoat
Meaning of flay
- verb To cause to fly; put to flight; drive off (by frightening).
- verb To frighten; scare; terrify.
- verb To be fear-stricken.
Questions about the past tense of flay
- What is the past tense of flay?
- The past tense of flay is flayed.
- What is the past participle of flay?
- The past participle of flay is flayed.
- Is flay a regular or irregular verb?
- Flay is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: flay (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of flay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/flay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.