flense

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“
I might point out the frauds and mountebanks that flense extravagant slices of notoriety from the beached whale carcass of celebrity nowadays.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. transitive verb To strip the blubber or skin from (a whale, for example).

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

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Examples (10)

  • I scarcely believe that in the course of the day we met with a single piece of ice large enough to flense a seal upon. —  The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II
  • It took us two hours to kill our first whale, and four to flense it. —  Peter the Whaler
  • Watch, as I flense light into constituent colours with them. —  Army Rumour Service
  • At last it gave in, and we had a four hours' pull after that, to tow the carcase to the ship, for there wasn't a cat's-paw of wind on the water W'en we came alongside, we got out the tackles, and before beginning to flense (that means, ma'am, to strip off the blubber), we cut a hole in the top o' the skull to get out the oil that was there; for you must know that the sperm-whale has got a sort of 'ollow or big cavern in its 'ead, w'ich is full o' the best oil, quite pure, that don't need to be cleared, but is all ready to be baled out and stowed away in casks. —  The Red Eric
  • I might point out the frauds and mountebanks that flense extravagant slices of notoriety from the beached whale carcass of celebrity nowadays. —  Sippican Cottage
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Etymologies (2)

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  1. Norwegian.

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  1. Scots also written flench and flinch; = Dutch vlensen, vlenzen = German flensen, from Danish flense = Swedish flänsa, flense = Norwegian flinsa, also flunsa, slash, cut up.
 

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/flɛns/
by American Heritage

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