écope, n.f., (nav.) scoop, skeet, ladle.
écorce, n.f., bark, rind; peel; shell; outside, surface. Oter l’—; to peel. Cet homme n’a que l’—; he is but a superficial, a shallow man. Juger du bois par l’—; to judge of the inside by the outside. Entre l’arbre et l’— il ne faut pas mettre le doigt; you should not interfere in other people’s quarrels.
écorcement or écorçage, n.m., barking, stripping (of trees).
écorcer, v.a., to bark, to strip, to peel.
écorché, n.m., (paint.) figure without skin (for the study of the muscles).
à écorche-cul, adv., (l.ex.) sliding on the ground; against the grain, unwillingly. V. à rebrousse-poil.
écorchée, n.f., (conch.) conus (striated cone). À l’—; in lots or small parcels.
écorchement, n.m., excoriation; flaying, skinning.
écorcher, v.a., to flay, to skin; to gall, to peel off, to rub off the bark; to take off the skin; to fleece. — l’anguille par la queue; to begin at the wrong end. Cela écorche les oreilles; that grates on one’s ears. Ce procureur écorchait ses clients; that attorney fleeced his clients. — le français; to speak broken French, to murder the French language. Jamais beau parler n’écorcha la langue; civility costs nothing. Il crie avant qu’on l’écorche; he cries out before he is hurt.
s’écorcher, v.r., to tear off one’s skin, to get skinned, to gall or be galled; (fig.) to speak ill of or disparage one’s self.