IN THE FLESH

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does in the flesh mean? 

• IN THE FLESH (adjective)
  The adjective IN THE FLESH has 1 sense:

1. an appearance carried out personally in someone else's physical presence

  Familiarity information: IN THE FLESH used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IN THE FLESH (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An appearance carried out personally in someone else's physical presence

Synonyms:

in-person; in the flesh

Context example:

a personal appearance is an appearance by a person in the flesh

Similar:

personal (concerning or affecting a particular person or his or her private life and personality)

 Context examples 

In truth? —in the flesh? My living Jane?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He had looked upon life in a more ferocious aspect; he had fought; he had buried his teeth in the flesh of a foe; and he had survived.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

His lover's imagination had made her holy, too holy, too spiritualized, to have any kinship with him in the flesh.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

To be was all that remained to him—to be, as he had defined death, without movement; to will, but not to execute; to think and reason and in the spirit of him to be as alive as ever, but in the flesh to be dead, quite dead.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When I am thus dead in the flesh, then you will, without a moment's delay, drive a stake through me and cut off my head; or do whatever else may be wanting to give me rest!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

She did not think herself a genius by any means, but when the writing fit came on, she gave herself up to it with entire abandon, and led a blissful life, unconscious of want, care, or bad weather, while she sat safe and happy in an imaginary world, full of friends almost as real and dear to her as any in the flesh.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He held up his hand, rubbing the ball of the thumb over the calloused palm and gazing at the dirt that was ingrained in the flesh itself and which no brush could scrub away.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She was repelled by those lacerated hands, grimed by toil so that the very dirt of life was ingrained in the flesh itself, by that red chafe of the collar and those bulging muscles.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)