fleshless

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flesh

(flĕsh)

a. The soft tissue of the body of a vertebrate, covering the bones and consisting mainly of skeletal muscle and fat: thought the boy needed some more flesh on his bones.

b. Such tissue of an animal, used as food: flesh of a cow; fish with white flesh.

c. The surface or skin of the human body: goosebumps on my flesh.

d. Fatty tissue: "a woman of wide and abundant flesh" (A.S. Byatt).

2. Botany The pulpy, usually edible part of a fruit or vegetable.

a. The human body: "the thousand natural shocks / That flesh is heir to" (Shakespeare).

b. Sensual appetites: gratification of the flesh.

4. Substance; reality: "The maritime strategy has an all but unstoppable institutional momentum behind it ... that has given force and flesh to the theory" (Jack Beatty).

v. fleshed, flesh·ing, flesh·es

v.tr.

1. To give substance or detail to; fill out. Often used with out: fleshed out the novel with a subplot.

2. To clean (a hide) of adhering flesh.

3. To encourage (a falcon, for example) to participate in the chase by feeding it flesh from a kill.

4. To plunge or thrust (a weapon) into flesh.

5. Archaic To inure (troops, for instance) to battle or bloodshed.

v.intr.

To become plump or fleshy; gain weight.

Idioms:

go the way of all flesh

1. To die.

2. To come to an end.

in the flesh

1. Alive.

2. In person; present.

[Middle English, from Old English flǣsc.]

flesh′less adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

fleshless

(ˈflɛʃləs)

adj

1. without flesh; not having flesh; incorporeal

2. without excess flesh; thin; lean

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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fleshless

adjective

Having little flesh or fat on the body:

angular, bony, gaunt, lank, lanky, lean, meager, rawboned, scrawny, skinny, slender, slim, spare, thin, twiggy, weedy.

Idioms: all skin and bones, thin as a rail.

Translations

fleshless

a. descarnado-a.

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

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References in classic literature ?

The goblins of her fancy lurked in every shadow about her, reaching out their cold, fleshless hands to grasp the terrified small girl who had called them into being.

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What a piteous face!" he asked, noticing a sick man of medium height sitting on a bench, wearing a brown overcoat and white trousers that fell in strange folds about his long, fleshless legs.

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"In good faith, senor," replied Sancho, "there's no trusting that fleshless one, I mean Death, who devours the lamb as soon as the sheep, and, as I have heard our curate say, treads with equal foot upon the lofty towers of kings and the lowly huts of the poor.

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The Sibyl laid her dry, fleshless hand on my shoulder, and forced me roughly back into the chair from which I had just risen.

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"She has a peculiar face; fleshless and haggard as it is, I rather like it; and when in good health and animated, I can fancy her physiognomy would be agreeable."

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"But I did," mumbled Bukawai through his fleshless jaws.

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His complexion was of a gipsy darkness; his fleshless cheeks had fallen into deep hollows, over which the bone projected like a pent-house.

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He produced his wasted forearms from under the sheet which covered him and clasped his fleshless claws.

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As Miss Haldin looked at her inquisitively she began to describe the emaciated face of the man, his fleshless limbs, his destitution.

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A large face, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old bird of prey.

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Thrusting in my head between the stems, I found myself gazing at a fleshless skull.

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At the sound of this clear, fresh, ringing child's voice, the recluse trembled; she turned her head with the sharp, abrupt movement of a steel spring, her long, fleshless hands cast aside the hair from her brow, and she fixed upon the child, bitter, astonished, desperate eyes.