[flesh] 
| 1. | the soft substance of a human or other animal body, consisting of muscle and fat. |
| 2. | muscular and fatty tissue. |
| 3. | this substance or tissue in animals, viewed as an article of food, usually excluding fish and sometimes fowl; meat. |
| 4. | fatness; weight. |
| 5. | the body, esp. as distinguished from the spirit or soul: The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. |
| 6. | the physical or animal nature of humankind as distinguished from its moral or spiritual nature: the needs of the flesh. |
| 7. | humankind. |
| 8. | living creatures generally. |
| 9. | a person's family or relatives. |
| 10. | Botany. the soft, pulpy portion of a fruit, vegetable, etc., as distinguished from the core, skin, shell, etc. |
| 11. | the surface of the human body; skin: A person with tender flesh should not expose it to direct sunlight. |
| 12. | flesh color. |
| 13. | to plunge (a weapon) into the flesh. |
| 14. | Hunting. to feed (a hound or hawk) with flesh in order to make it more eager for the chase. Compare blood (def. 16). |
| 15. | to incite and accustom (persons) to bloodshed or battle by an initial experience. |
| 16. | to inflame the ardor or passions of by a foretaste. |
| 17. | to overlay or cover (a skeleton or skeletal frame) with flesh or with a fleshlike substance. |
| 18. | to give dimension, substance, or reality to (often fol. by out): The playwright fleshed out the characters. |
| 19. | to remove adhering flesh from (hides), in leather manufacture. |
| 20. | Archaic. to satiate with flesh or fleshly enjoyments; surfeit; glut. |
| 21. | in the flesh, present and alive before one's eyes; in person: The movie star looked quite different in the flesh. |
| 22. | pound of flesh, something that strict justice demands is due, but can only be paid with great loss or suffering to the payer. |
| 23. | press the flesh, Informal. to shake hands, as with voters while campaigning: The senator is busy as ever pressing the flesh on the campaign trail. |
flesh (flěsh)
n.
The soft tissue of the body of a vertebrate, covering the bones and consisting mainly of skeletal muscle and fat.
flesh out
Also, put flesh on the bones of. Give substance to, provide with details, amplify. For example, The editor told her to flesh out the story, or You need to put flesh on the bones of these characters. This metaphoric expression, alluding to clothing a nude body or adding flesh to a skeleton, was in the mid-1600s put simply as to flesh, the adverb out being added about two centuries later.