Thesaurus.com
Dictionary.com
Definitions

flay

[fley] / fleɪ /
VERB
remove skin, bark, hide, etc.
Synonyms
Antonyms
STRONG




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

From then on, he curbed his aggressive instincts to support Gill, but could not resist one straight flay off Bashir for six.

From BBC Jun. 20, 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

It was a delicate process because I didn't want to flay the skin off my fingers.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir

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

Using the surgical kit of New Journalism, Wolfe flays Darwin and Chomsky as imperious, self-aggrandizing snobs, each humiliated by a lower-class “clueless outsider who crashes the party of the big thinkers.”

From Washington Post Aug. 31, 2016

At Old Trafford, Andy Carroll flicks an Antonio cross into the path of Mauro Zarate, who flays the ball wide from six yards out!

From The Guardian Dec. 5, 2015

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

The hand, I judged, which had held the pen was more familiar with flays and scythes.

From Arms and the Woman by Harold MacGrath

The firm was flayed in 2018 by federal Judge Royce C. Lamberth of Washington, D.C., for engaging in what he labeled a “high-tech shakedown ... smacking of extortion.”

From Los Angeles Times Jun. 18, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal Dec. 5, 2025

In Anderson's next over, Jaiswal flayed three consecutive sixes.

From BBC Feb. 18, 2024

The students plastered Dean Martinez’s classroom last week with flyers saying that the protesters were exercising their First Amendment right to engage in “counter-speech,” an argument flayed by Judge Duncan.

From Washington Times Mar. 24, 2023

They raised King Tommen’s stag and lion above the walls of Winterfell as the wind came howling from the north, and below it the flayed man of the Dreadfort.

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

Babar followed suit, flaying the ball all over, while his opposite number stood, arms crossed, chewing his lip, wondering what he could do.

From BBC Oct. 24, 2021

Both the show, which employed different hosts over the years, and Carlson’s contract, were canceled not long after, by some accounts as a direct result of the flaying.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 22, 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

The chant of “We’ve got our Arsenal back” during the 5-1 flaying of Fulham summed up the season so far.

From The Guardian Oct. 14, 2018

Gradually, in the small hours of the morning, the wind stopped flaying them and began to taper off.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong




Vocabulary lists containing flay


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training