> as lemmas

?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1872) IV. 241 Cleopatra folowede themperour Octouian, that sche myȝhte inclyne his herte to fullefille the pleasure of the flesche with her.

1529 T. More Dialogue Heresyes i, in Wks. 162/2 To call and exorte the worlde from all pleasure of the fleshe to the puritie and clennes of the body and soule.

1582 T. Bentley Fift Lampe Virginitie 18 Iudith decked hir selfe brauelie of a right discretion and vertue, for the safegard of hir people; but I for voluptuousnes and pleasure of the flesh.

1620 tr. G. Boccaccio Decameron I. Induction f. 5 Not secular persons onely, but such as are recluses, and shut up within Monasteries, breaking the Lawes of obedience, and being addicted to pleasures of the flesh, are become lasciuious and dissolute.

1665 S. Patrick Parable of Pilgrim xxxvii. 487 [To] keep our selves above the soft pleasures of the flesh into which we are apt to sink.

1758 W. Calcott Thoughts Moral & Divine (ed. 2) 267 The Pleasures of the flesh..are as nothing.

1799 P. Will tr. A. von Kotzebue Sufferings of Family of Ortenberg II. i. 3 572 Sermons against the Pleasures of the Flesh.

1856 Ladies' Repository May 257 His mission is to wean men from the false pleasures of the flesh, by making them appreciative of refined factitious forms.

1867 W. H. Dixon New Amer. 225 I think they were his spiritual queens and companions, chosen after the method of the Wesleyan Perfectionists; with a view, not to the pleasures of the flesh, but to the glories of another world.

1922 F. Harris My Life & Loves I. xi. 234 The passions of the senses demand propinquity and satisfaction and nothing is more forgetful than pleasures of the flesh.

1991 R. R. McCammon Boy's Life i. 17 The girl with cornsilk hair and a dirty mouth earned her living by the pleasures of the flesh.