What does "flesh" mean?
The soft tissue of the body, especially muscle and fat.
Flesh
/flɛʃ/ noun, verb
noun, verb ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: The soft tissue of the body, especially muscle and fat.
- Grammar: flesh is listed as noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: pulp, abalone, adam, agnate.
- Useful contrasts: mammalian skeleton, skeletal remains, bone.
- Usage evidence: The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
How to use "flesh"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "flesh" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "flesh" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "flesh" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "flesh" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "flesh" is acting as noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "pulp" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "flesh", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The soft tissue of the body, especially muscle and fat. uncountable, usually
"The flesh of chicken, fowl, and turkey has much shorter fibre than that of ruminating animals, and is not intermingled with fat,—the fat always being found in layers directly under the skin, and surrounding the intestines."
- 2 alternative names for the body of a human being wordnet
- 3 The skin of a human or animal. uncountable, usually
- 4 the soft tissue of the body of a vertebrate: mainly muscle tissue and fat wordnet
- 5 Bare arms, bare legs, bare torso. broadly, uncountable, usually
Show 9 more definitions
- 6 a soft moist part of a fruit wordnet
- 7 Animal tissue regarded as food; meat (but sometimes excluding fish). uncountable, usually
"Thenne syr launcelot sayd / fader what shalle I do / Now sayd the good man / I requyre yow take this hayre that was this holy mans and putte it nexte thy skynne / and it shalle preuaylle the gretely / syr and I wille doo hit sayd sir launcelot / Also I charge you that ye ete no flesshe as longe as ye be in the quest of the sancgreal / nor ye shalle drynke noo wyne / and that ye here masse dayly and ye may doo hit"
- 8 The human body as a physical entity. uncountable, usually
"And the preaſt ſhall put on his lynen albe and his lynen breches apon his fleſh, and take awaye the aſſhes whiche the fire of the burntſacrifice in the altare hath made, and put them beſyde the alter, […]"
- 9 The mortal body of a human being, contrasted with the spirit or soul. uncountable, usually
"For all flesh is as grasse, and all the glory of man as the flowre of grasse: the grasse withereth, and the flowre thereof falleth away."
- 10 The evil and corrupting principle working in man. uncountable, usually
- 11 The soft, often edible, parts of fruits or vegetables. uncountable, usually
"The flesh of black walnuts was a protein-packed winter food carefully hoarded in tall, stilted buildings."
- 12 Tenderness of feeling; gentleness. obsolete, uncountable, usually
"There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart."
- 13 Kindred; stock; race. obsolete, uncountable, usually
"He is our brother and our flesh."
- 14 A yellowish pink color; the color of some Caucasian human skin. uncountable, usually
"She opened [...] a third that was the peachy white that crayon companies used to call “flesh”."
Verb
- 1 To reward (a hound, bird of prey etc.) with flesh of the animal killed, to excite it for further hunting; to train (an animal) to have an appetite for flesh. transitive
"Before they had fleshed the hounds, however, he recollected himself […]."
- 2 remove adhering flesh from (hides) when preparing leather manufacture wordnet
- 3 To bury (something, especially a weapon) in flesh. transitive
"Give me a clean sword and a clean foe to flesh it in."
- 4 To inure or habituate someone in or to a given practice. obsolete
"And whosoever could now joyne us together, and eagerly flesh all our people to a common enterprise, we should make our ancient military name and chivalrous credit to flourish againe."
- 5 To glut. transitive
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 To put flesh on; to fatten. transitive
- 7 To remove the flesh from the skin during the making of leather.
Antonyms
Example
"The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "flesh"?
Common synonyms include: pulp, abalone, adam, agnate, alive, all that lives.
How do you use "flesh" in a sentence?
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
How do you pronounce "flesh"?
Pronounced /flɛʃ/.
Etymology
From Middle English flesh, flesch, flæsch, from Old English flǣsċ, from Proto-West Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- (“to tear, peel off”). Cognates Cognate with Yola vleash, vlesh (“flesh”), North Frisian flaasch, flaosk, Fleesk, fleäsk, floask, flääsk, flååsch (“flesh, meat”), Saterland Frisian Flaask (“flesh, meat”), West Frisian fleis (“flesh, meat”), Cimbrian blòas, vlaisch, vlòas (“flesh, meat”), Dutch vlees, vleesch (“flesh, meat”), German Fleisch (“flesh, meat”), German Low German and Luxembourgish Fleesch (“flesh, meat”), Vilamovian fłaś (“meat; muscle”), Yiddish פֿלייש (fleysh, “flesh, meat”), Danish flæsk (“pork; bacon”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk flesk (“pork; bacon”), Swedish fläsk (“pork”).