flesh and blood
One's own family
Flesh and blood refers to the physical human body, emphasizing its vulnerability and limitations: The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
More commonly, it means close relatives—those who share your biological substance: She's my own flesh and blood.
The phrase emphasizes kinship bonds: How could you betray your own flesh and blood?
As an adjective, it distinguishes real people from representations: a flesh-and-blood person rather than a character in a novel.
Physical structure, living thing
- tissueDisposable soft paper
- muscleContractile body tissue
- skinBody's outer layer
- bonesRigid internal support structure
organs · anatomy · physiology · cellular · tangible · physical · visceral · carnal
Those connected by blood
- familyRelated people together
- siblingsFellow offspring
- parentsMother and father
- childrenYoung human beings
ancestors · descendants · lineage · bloodline · progeny · heritage · clan · kinfolk
Ease of breaking
- mortalityState of eventual death
- frailtyWeakness of body
- weaknessDeficiency in force
- sensitivityResponsiveness to stimuli
tenderness · delicacy · perishable · finite · transience · impermanence · susceptibility · exposure
body
Physical structure, living thing
bones · organs · anatomy · physiology · cellular · tangible · physical · visceral · carnal · bodily
relatives
Those connected by blood
children · ancestors · descendants · lineage · bloodline · progeny · heritage · clan · kinfolk · next of kin
fragility
Ease of breaking
sensitivity · tenderness · delicacy · perishable · finite · transience · impermanence · susceptibility · exposure · defenselessness
human
Homo sapiens individual
authentic · compassion · empathy · feeling · emotion · warmth · heart · soul · humaneness · kindness
real
Truly existing, not fake
present · actual · concrete · in person · living proof · undeniable · visible · touchable · manifest · genuine
- biblical bodybody, bone, bones, hand, hands
- Shakespeare phrasesto be or not to be, et tu Brute, all the world's a stage, out damned spot, friends Romans countrymen
- blood lorebloodletting, ritual purity, animal sacrifice, purification rites, purification rituals
- familymother, father, parents, siblings, parent
- humanspeople, mankind, humanity, humans, men
- pairspair, pairs, two, duo, duos
flesh and bloodstranger
Person not yet known
outsider · non-relative · acquaintance · unrelated · friend
flesh and bloodabstraction
Distilling to essential qualities
spirit · ghost · phantom · apparition · specter
blood, flesh, bloody, fleshy, blooded, fleshing, fleshed, fleshes, bloods