Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An anatomical representation of all or part of a human or animal body with the skin removed so as to display the musculature.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In painting and sculpture, a subject, man or animal, flayed or exhibited as deprived of its skin, so that the muscular system is exposed, for the purposes of study.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Fine Arts) A manikin, or image, representing an animal, especially man, with the skin removed so that the muscles are exposed for purposes of study.

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

  • noun art A figure drawn, painted or sculpted so as to show the muscles of the body without skin.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from past participle of écorcher, to flay, from Latin excorticāre : ex-, off, away; see ex– + cortex, cortic-, bark, skin; see cortex.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French écorché ("flayed").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word écorché.

Examples

    Sorry, no example sentences found.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • art depicting the human figure without skin. literally, "flayed."

    July 22, 2008

  • "A steady diet of opiate pills, Freezeland Fags, Wormwood Star Absinthe, bad coffee, and almost no food had turned his body into a thin, taut, anatomical écorché, with no muscles and all the nerves showing, the whole offering little or no protection against the outer world."

    Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat, p 223

    July 24, 2011