flesh one's maiden sword

verb

Etymology

Literally, to shed blood for the first time with a new sword; see flesh (“bury in flesh”), maiden (“virgin”), sword.

Definitions

  1. To experience or succeed in combat or struggle for the first time, as in the military or…

    To experience or succeed in combat or struggle for the first time, as in the military or in politics.

    • Come brother Iohn, full brauely hast thou flesht / Thy mayden sword.
    • Well, Lord Althorpe has last night fleshed his maiden sword as a finance minister—and the result, I am sorry to say, is a failure.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for flesh one's maiden sword. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA