The Collaborative International Dictionary
Flay \Flay\ (fl[=a]), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flayed (fl[=a]d); p. pr. & vb. n. Flaying.] [OE. flean, flan, AS. fle['a]n; akin to D. vlaen, Icel. fl[=a], Sw. fl[*a], Dan. flaae, cf. Lith. pleszti to tear, plyszti, v.i., to burst, tear; perh. akin to E. flag a flat stone, flaw.] To skin; to strip off the skin or surface of; as, to flay an ox; to flay the green earth.
With her nails
She 'll flay thy wolfish visage.
--Shak.
Wiktionary
n. The act by which something is flayed. vb. (present participle of flay English)
Wikipedia
Flaying, also known colloquially as skinning, was a method of slow and painful execution in which skin is removed from the body. Generally, an attempt is made to keep the removed portion of skin intact. This article deals with flaying in the sense of torture and execution of humans.
Usage examples of "flaying".
Before I could reply that they were on pain of flaying to obey henceforth no other than their ancient king, Cepheus entreated me to spare his daughter's life, but denied that any Ethiopian could take his, which was already flown to Hades with his black queen's shade.
The atrium was filled with 'sunlight,' a welcome relief from the terrible rains and blizzards flaying the battered Earth, and Colin rose quickly to grip his hand and lead him back to the men sitting around the stone table.
Then he would go into the temple and ceremonially flay the body-a little like the Xipe-Totec rite, except that the flaying was done after death, rather than before-then reappear clothed in her skin and her garments, denoting that the corn had gone into the earth and been reborn as the young corn plant.
Then he would go into the temple and ceremonially flay the bodya little like the Xipe-Totec rite, except that the flaying was done after death, rather than beforethen reappear clothed in her skin and her garments, denoting that the corn had gone into the earth and been reborn as the young corn plant.
Small orphans were abroad like irate dwarfs and fools and sots drooling and flailing about in the small markets of the metropolis and the prisoners rode past the carnage in the meatstalls and the waxy smell where racks of guts hung black with flies and flayings of meat in great red sheets now darkened with the advancing day and the flensed and naked skulls of cows and sheep with their dull blue eyes glaring wildly and the stiff bodies of deer and javelina and ducks and quail and parrots, all wild things from the country round hanging head downward from hooks.
Gromph saw lines or red crisscrossing the matron mother's face and hair, sprays of blood from the flayings she'd recently inflicted.
Nothing but the sound of its flayings and hissing, interspersed with a rapid chattering noise which he thought might be distant machine-gun fire.
The book’s author lingered lovingly over impalements and flayings and tortures visited on a generation unlucky enough to have lived when the Free Companies of Khatovar marched out of that strange corner of the world that spawned them.
The dose was only partially effective in preventing shock and loss of consciousness, so the proceedings were terminated after flaying the right leg, as you will see.
Jefferson said, looking back up to where the calliope in question was flaying the approaches to a particularly substantial-looking bunker with penetrators that could have knocked out an assault APC, not just battle armor.
Fantasizing about impalement, flaying, and disembowlment while he sat in a hovel with nothing to pick on but flies.
It savoured scenes of dismemberment, of flaying alive, of the application of noxious substances to the few tender portions of Catteni anatomy.
The flaying and blinding could even be said to be a symbolic expression of her attitude toward male sexuality.
No troops fired faster than the British, and now, for the first time that day, the French suffered under the flaying volleys of platoon fire.