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The French word “écorcher” translates ’to skin’, to tear the skin of somebody’, also ’to dupe’.

So, ’les écorchés’ means ‘those who were skinned’ or ’those who were duped’; like the cheated ones, those who were taken advantage of.

in this one case French is more elegant than English.

French is not such a difficult language just because there are some unknown words!

You are on the right track. Les 'ecorch'es translated to "Large harry skin flute". Those French are something else, Aren't they.

The basic meaning of the word is "fleeced", but "les écorchés" is used figuratively to mean people who are hypersensitive (the opposite of thick skinned!)

The cut-away drawings

First time I am coming across such a term...