"flesh one's maiden sword" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Literally, to shed blood for the first time with a new sword; see flesh (“bury in flesh”), maiden (“virgin”), sword.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fleshes one's maiden sword",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fleshing one's maiden sword",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fleshed one's maiden sword",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fleshed one's maiden sword",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "flesh one's maiden sword (third-person singular simple present fleshes one's maiden sword, present participle fleshing one's maiden sword, simple past and past participle fleshed one's maiden sword)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:",
          "text": "Come brother Iohn, full brauely hast thou flesht / Thy mayden sword.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1831, “Speakers and Speeches in Parliament, No. IV”, in The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, volume 31, page 222:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1869 July 22, William Fox, New Zealand. Parliamentary Debates: Fourth Session of the Fourth Parliament. Legislative Council and House of Representatives, volume 6, published 1869, page 79:",
          "text": "Day after day, and year after year, we have heard the Native question discussed in an intelligible and statesmanlike manner, when the subject was brought forward in a practicable form, but not when presented in the style of a young member of a debating society endeavouring to “flesh his maiden sword.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 286:",
          "text": "The Ragged Guardists, when they did flesh their maiden swords on the 12th, could do nothing more spectacular than kidnap three Czech soldiers from Csap railway station.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To experience or succeed in combat or struggle for the first time, as in the military or in politics."
      ],
      "id": "en-flesh_one's_maiden_sword-en-verb-QIsMqY-7",
      "links": [
        [
          "combat",
          "combat"
        ],
        [
          "struggle",
          "struggle"
        ],
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "politics",
          "politics"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, dated) To experience or succeed in combat or struggle for the first time, as in the military or in politics."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "first blood"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "flesh one's maiden sword"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Literally, to shed blood for the first time with a new sword; see flesh (“bury in flesh”), maiden (“virgin”), sword.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fleshes one's maiden sword",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fleshing one's maiden sword",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fleshed one's maiden sword",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fleshed one's maiden sword",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "flesh one's maiden sword (third-person singular simple present fleshes one's maiden sword, present participle fleshing one's maiden sword, simple past and past participle fleshed one's maiden sword)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "first blood"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:",
          "text": "Come brother Iohn, full brauely hast thou flesht / Thy mayden sword.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1831, “Speakers and Speeches in Parliament, No. IV”, in The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, volume 31, page 222:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1869 July 22, William Fox, New Zealand. Parliamentary Debates: Fourth Session of the Fourth Parliament. Legislative Council and House of Representatives, volume 6, published 1869, page 79:",
          "text": "Day after day, and year after year, we have heard the Native question discussed in an intelligible and statesmanlike manner, when the subject was brought forward in a practicable form, but not when presented in the style of a young member of a debating society endeavouring to “flesh his maiden sword.”",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 286:",
          "text": "The Ragged Guardists, when they did flesh their maiden swords on the 12th, could do nothing more spectacular than kidnap three Czech soldiers from Csap railway station.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To experience or succeed in combat or struggle for the first time, as in the military or in politics."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "combat",
          "combat"
        ],
        [
          "struggle",
          "struggle"
        ],
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "politics",
          "politics"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, dated) To experience or succeed in combat or struggle for the first time, as in the military or in politics."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "flesh one's maiden sword"
}