flay

With Green stepping back to flay an expected short ball, he was bluffed by a Carse yorker that splattered the stumps.

From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2025

Then they flay it—not filet, flay—meaning remove the skin.

From Salon ● Dec. 7, 2023

This isn’t to criticize the family, but to flay CNN, which should have reported the factual context of the household’s inflation experience.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2021

Having talked his way into an exclusive interview with billionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., Wilder proceeded to flay him:

From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2021

But presently I gave command to my officers to flay those sheep the bronze cut down, and make burnt offerings of flesh to the gods below—to sovereign Death, to pale Persephone.

From "The Odyssey" by Homer

Political correctness is only one of the many cherished attitudes that Berg flays.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 13, 2022

He similarly flays the response to the recent documentary about Michael Jackson and riskily spotlights a ten-year-old kid sitting in the front row.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 13, 2019

Then he bowls wildly outside off stump and Smith flays an edge to third man for four.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 25, 2016

In the harum-scarum batting has been beautiful strokeplay, the off-drives of Bell and the clips through leg of Root, the innovation and aggression of Warner and the counter-attacking flays of Moeen Ali.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2015

Who said to the statesmen:— "Power is a flame That flays and blisters If you play at the game."

From The Congo and Other Poems by Lindsay, Vachel

One of his recurring subjects was meat, from flayed rabbits to rayfish, with odorous side effects.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025

Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett flayed some wayward India bowling at a rate of more than five an over in their stand of 166, taking a huge chunk out of the tourists' 358.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2025

Having opted to continue its lawsuit against two activist investor groups even after they withdrew a shareholder proposal the company management opposed, the giant oil company had gotten flayed by shareholder advocates for its bullying.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2024

“It’s very human to not want to have yourself sort of flayed open for the world to see.”

From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2024

The rope—the rope to which Jonathan had been tied—remained tied to his ankle and flayed about like a writhing snake.

From "The Fighting Ground" by Avi

Smoking in a raffish suit like a film noir baddie with a shock of red hair ready to torch the world, Noble’s Richard employs a dusky, ironic voice to flaying effect.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026

He drove his first delivery for four before he set about flaying India's bowling to all corners of this ground in an epic partnership of 303 with Harry Brook.

From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2025

Get it wrong, admit the merest uncertainty, alter your story one iota, and in a few months’ time a smooth-talking lawyer will be flaying you to ribbons in front of an FA disciplinary panel.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2021

By combining rapid-fire wordplay, historical japery, the subversion of middle-class mores and the flaying of upper-class twits, Monty Python “took silliness to renaissance levels,” Thompson said.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 22, 2020

There will be no flaying here whilst I am Prince of Winterfell, Theon had responded, little dreaming how short his rule would prove.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin