flay

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | 683 words | Copyright

flay / flā/ • v. [tr.] peel the skin off (a corpse or carcass): one shoulder had been flayed to reveal the muscles. ∎ peel (the skin) off a corpse or carcass: she flayed the white skin from the flesh. ∎ whip or beat (someone) so harshly as to remove their skin: Matthew flayed them viciously with a branch. ∎ fig. criticize severely and brutally: he flayed the government for not moving fast enough on economic reform. ∎ fig. extort or exact money or belongings from (someone): plundering cities and temples and flaying the people with requisitions. DERIVATIVES: flay·er n.

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