Definition of "flay" []

• To strip off the skin or outer covering of. (verb-transitive)
• To strip of money or goods; fleece. (verb-transitive)
• To whip or lash. (verb-transitive)
• To assail with stinging criticism; excoriate. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Looks like someone's cosy old granny and has a tongue that would flay a kangaroo."
• "Would Michelle flay the bannana prior to she cooking it?"
• ""Merciless, cruel, and unforgiving," wrote Angela Carter a more obvious admirer in her 1982 preface to this edition: "Stead has a rare capacity to flay the reader's sensibilities.""