[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. |
| pound of flesh n. pl. pounds of flesh A debt harshly insisted upon. [From Antonio's debt to Shylock in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare.] |
Creditors who insist on having their “pound of flesh” are those who cruelly demand the repayment of a debt, no matter how much suffering it will cost the debtor: “The bank will have its pound of flesh; it is going to foreclose on our mortgage and force us to sell our home.” The expression is from The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare.
A phrase from the play The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare. The moneylender Shylock demands the flesh of the “merchant of Venice,” Antonio, under a provision in their contract. Shylock never gets the pound of flesh, however, because the character Portia discovers a point of law that overrides the contract: Shylock is forbidden to shed any blood in getting the flesh from Antonio's body.
Note: People who cruelly or unreasonably insist on their rights are said to be demanding their “pound of flesh.”
"Whan we sat by ye Flesh pottes, and had bred ynough to eate." [Coverdale translation, 1535]Flesh-wound is from 1674; flesh-color, the hue of "Caucasian" skin, is first recorded 1611, described as a tint composed of "a light pink with a little yellow" [O'Neill, "Dyeing," 1862]. Fleshy "plump" is from c.1369. An O.E. poetry-word for "body" was flæsc-hama, lit. "flesh-home."
flesh (flěsh)
n.
The soft tissue of the body of a vertebrate, covering the bones and consisting mainly of skeletal muscle and fat.
pound of flesh
A debt whose payment is harshly insisted on, as in The other members of the cartel all want their pound of flesh from Brazil. This expression alludes to the scene in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (4:1) where the moneylender Shylock demands the pound of flesh promised him in payment for a loan, and Portia responds that he may have it but without an ounce of blood (since blood was not promised). [c. 1600]