Adjacent Words

flesh and blood definitions

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Merriam Webster's

noun Date: before 12th century 1. corporeal nature as composed of flesh and of blood 2. near kindred — used chiefly in the phrase one's own flesh and blood 3. substance, reality

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Blood Blood, n. [OE. blod, blood, AS. bl?d; akin to D. bloed, OHG. bluot, G. blut, Goth, bl??, Sw. & Dan. blod; prob. fr. the same root as E. blow to bloom. See Blow to bloom.] 1. The fluid which circulates in the principal vascular system of animals, carrying nourishment to all parts of the body, and bringing away waste products to be excreted. See under Arterial. Note: The blood consists of a liquid, the plasma, containing minute particles, the blood corpuscles. In the invertebrate animals it is usually nearly colorless, and contains only one kind of corpuscles; but in all vertebrates, except Amphioxus, it contains some colorless corpuscles, with many more which are red and give the blood its uniformly red color. See Corpuscle, Plasma. 2. Relationship by descent from a common ancestor; consanguinity; kinship. To share the blood of Saxon royalty. --Sir W. Scott. A friend of our own blood. --Waller. Half blood (Law), relationship through only one parent. Whole blood, relationship through both father and mother. In American Law, blood includes both half blood, and whole blood. --Bouvier. --Peters. 3. Descent; lineage; especially, honorable birth; the highest royal lineage. Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam. --Shak. I am a gentleman of blood and breeding. --Shak. 4. (Stock Breeding) Descent from parents of recognized breed; excellence or purity of breed. Note: In stock breeding half blood is descent showing one half only of pure breed. Blue blood, full blood, or warm blood, is the same as blood. 5. The fleshy nature of man. Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood. --Shak. 6. The shedding of blood; the taking of life, murder; manslaughter; destruction. So wills the fierce, avenging sprite, Till blood for blood atones. --Hood. 7. A bloodthirsty or murderous disposition. [R.] He was a thing of blood, whose every motion Was timed with dying cries. --Shak. 8. Temper of mind; disposition; state of the passions; -- as if the blood were the seat of emotions. When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth. --Shak. Note: Often, in this sense, accompanied with bad, cold, warm, or other qualifying word. Thus, to commit an act in cold blood, is to do it deliberately, and without sudden passion; to do it in bad blood, is to do it in anger. Warm blood denotes a temper inflamed or irritated. To warm or heat the blood is to excite the passions. Qualified by up, excited feeling or passion is signified; as, my blood was up. 9. A man of fire or spirit; a fiery spark; a gay, showy man; a rake. Seest thou not . . . how giddily 'a turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen and five and thirty? --Shak. It was the morning costume of a dandy or blood. --Thackeray. 10. The juice of anything, especially if red. He washed . . . his clothes in the blood of grapes. --Gen. xiix. 11. Note: Blood is often used as an adjective, and as the first part of self-explaining compound words; as, blood-bespotted, blood-bought, blood-curdling, blood-dyed, blood-red, blood-spilling, blood-stained, blood-warm, blood-won. Blood baptism (Eccl. Hist.), the martyrdom of those who had not been baptized. They were considered as baptized in blood, and this was regarded as a full substitute for literal baptism. Blood blister, a blister or bleb containing blood or bloody serum, usually caused by an injury. Blood brother, brother by blood or birth. Blood clam (Zo["o]l.), a bivalve mollusk of the genus Arca and allied genera, esp. Argina pexata of the American coast. So named from the color of its flesh. Blood corpuscle. See Corpuscle. Blood crystal (Physiol.), one of the crystals formed by the separation in a crystalline form of the h[ae]moglobin of the red blood corpuscles; h[ae]matocrystallin. All blood does not yield blood crystals. Blood heat, heat equal to the temperature of human blood, or about 981/2 [deg] Fahr. Blood horse, a horse whose blood or lineage is derived from the purest and most highly prized origin or stock. Blood money. See in the Vocabulary. Blood orange, an orange with dark red pulp. Blood poisoning (Med.), a morbid state of the blood caused by the introduction of poisonous or infective matters from without, or the absorption or retention of such as are produced in the body itself; tox[ae]mia. Blood pudding, a pudding made of blood and other materials. Blood relation, one connected by blood or descent. Blood spavin. See under Spavin. Blood vessel. See in the Vocabulary. Blue blood, the blood of noble or aristocratic families, which, according to a Spanish prover, has in it a tinge of blue; -- hence, a member of an old and aristocratic family. Flesh and blood. (a) A blood relation, esp. a child. (b) Human nature. In blood (Hunting), in a state of perfect health and vigor. --Shak. To let blood. See under Let. Prince of the blood, the son of a sovereign, or the issue of a royal family. The sons, brothers, and uncles of the sovereign are styled princes of the blood royal; and the daughters, sisters, and aunts are princesses of the blood royal.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

, but contains in adition a large number of crystalline bodies, such as creatin, xanthin, hypoxanthin, carnin, etc. It is also rich in phosphate of potash. 2. Animal food, in distinction from vegetable; meat; especially, the body of beasts and birds used as food, as distinguished from fish. With roasted flesh, or milk, and wastel bread. --Chaucer. 3. The human body, as distinguished from the soul; the corporeal person. As if this flesh, which walls about our life, Were brass impregnable. --Shak. 4. The human eace; mankind; humanity. All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. --Gen. vi. 12. 5. Human nature: (a) In a good sense, tenderness of feeling; gentleness. There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart. --Cowper. (b) In a bad sense, tendency to transient or physical pleasure; desire for sensual gratification; carnality. (c) (Theol.) The character under the influence of animal propensities or selfish passions; the soul unmoved by spiritual influences. 6. Kindred; stock; race. He is our brother and our flesh. --Gen. xxxvii. 27. 7. The soft, pulpy substance of fruit; also, that part of a root, fruit, and the like, which is fit to be eaten. Note: Flesh is often used adjectively or self-explaining compounds; as, flesh broth or flesh-broth; flesh brush or fleshbrush; flesh tint or flesh-tint; flesh wound. After the flesh, after the manner of man; in a gross or earthly manner. ``Ye judge after the flesh.'' --John viii. 15. An arm of flesh, human strength or aid. Flesh and blood. See under Blood. Flesh broth, broth made by boiling flesh in water. Flesh fly (Zo["o]l.), one of several species of flies whose larv[ae] or maggots feed upon flesh, as the bluebottle fly; -- called also meat fly, carrion fly, and blowfly. See Blowly. Flesh meat, animal food. --Swift. Flesh side, the side of a skin or hide which was next to the flesh; -- opposed to grain side. Flesh tint (Painting), a color used in painting to imitate the hue of the living body. Flesh worm (Zo["o]l.), any insect larva of a flesh fly. See Flesh fly (above). Proud flesh. See under Proud. To be one flesh, to be closely united as in marriage; to become as one person. --Gen. ii. 24.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

see flesh

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

See FLESH, 5.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

1. Body, human system, corporeal nature. 2. Kindred, blood-kindred (especially one's offspring).

Moby Thesaurus

agnate, ancestry, blood, blood relation, blood relative, bodiliness, clansman, cognate, collateral, collateral relative, concreteness, connections, consanguinean, corporality, corporeality, corporealness, corporeity, distaff side, distant relation, embodiment, enate, family, flesh, folks, german, kin, kindred, kinfolk, kinnery, kinsfolk, kinsman, kinsmen, kinswoman, kith and kin, materiality, materialness, near relation, next of kin, people, physicality, physicalness, posterity, relations, relatives, sib, sibling, spear kin, spear side, spindle kin, spindle side, substantiality, sword side, tribesman, uterine kin