Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state or condition of being fleshless; absence of flesh.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

fleshless +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • Michael noticed the fleshlessness of the fingers and wrist.

    There was a King in Egypt Norma Lorimer 1906

  • And Carmen wished to thank; the smiling Virgin for that priceless bliss, and lifted up her eyes, but the sickness of ghostly fear returned upon her when she looked; for now the Mother seemed as a woman long dead, and the smile was the smile of fleshlessness, and the places of the eyes were voids and darknesses ...

    Chita: a Memory of Last Island Lafcadio Hearn 1877

  • The expression of the dominating soul in him had become more marked; the nose had grown more prominent through his increased fleshlessness, there were great dark rings under his eyes.

    The Saint Antonio Fogazzaro 1876

  • He undoubtedly experienced a secret alarm at the sight of this man who had returned from transportation, and whose fleshlessness testified to the long sufferings he had endured; however, this touch of alarm was delightful, for it increased his notion of his own importance, and convinced him that he was really doing something wonderful in treating a dangerous character as a friend.

    The Fat and the Thin ��mile Zola 1871

  • In fact, the usual consequences of good feeding were almost inverted in their case; and although I might assert that they became leaner in proportion to what they received, yet I must confine myself to truth, by stating candidly that this was not the fact; that there was a certain state of fleshlessness to which they arrived, but from which they neither advanced nor receded by good feeding or bad.

    Phil Purcel, The Pig-Driver; The Geography Of An Irish Oath; The Lianhan Shee Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of William Carleton, Volume Three William Carleton 1831

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