flesh one's maiden sword

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To kill or defeat someone for the first time in battle

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

đánh bại hoặc giết ai đó lần đầu trong trận chiến

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to blood one's new sword
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The young warrior fleshed his maiden sword in the heat of combat

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “flesh one's maiden sword” mean?

To kill or defeat someone for the first time in battle Literally: to blood one's new sword

Is “flesh one's maiden sword” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.