flay

• enPR: flā, IPA^(key): /fleɪ/
• (dialectal) enPR: flē, IPA^(key): /fliː/^[1]

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -eɪ

From Middle English flayen, flaien, fleien, from Old English *flīeġan ("to cause to fly, put to flight, frighten"; found only in compounds: āflīeġan), from Proto-Germanic *flaugijaną (“to let fly, cause to fly”), causative of Proto-Germanic *fleuganą (“to fly”).

• fla (Yorkshire)
• fley, flee, fly, fleg, flae, flea (Scotland)

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

1. (transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To cause to fly; put to flight; drive off (by frightening).
2. (transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To frighten; scare; terrify.
   • 1979, “The Trial”, in The Wall, performed by Pink Floyd:

     If they'd let me have my way, I could have flayed him into shape

3. (intransitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To be fear-stricken.

• flaying

flay (plural flays)

1. (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A fright; a scare.
2. (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Fear; a source of fear; a formidable matter; a fearsome or repellent-looking individual.

• flaysome

From Middle English flen, from Old English flēan, from Proto-West Germanic *flahan, from Proto-Germanic *flahaną.

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

1. To strip the skin off; to skin.
   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 113:

     The farmer flayed him as he had the bear, and so he had both bear-skin and fox-skin.

2. To lash or whip.

• (remove the skin of): fleece, flense, skin

• beflay
• flail
• flayer
• flay someone alive
• unflayed

• Alfy