molt
(of birds, insects, reptiles, etc.) to cast or shed the feathers, skin, or the like, that will be replaced by a new growth.
to cast or shed (feathers, skin, etc.) in the process of renewal.
an act, process, or an instance of molting.
something that is dropped in molting.
Origin of molt
1- Also especially British, moult .
Other words from molt
- molter, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use molt in a sentence
BORN THIS WEEK Natalie Portman (June 9, 1981) The molting one herself is a Gemini ruled by winged Mercury.
I could bear the cage myself, I'd learned to do that; but I didn't want another she‑bird molting around.
The Silver Butterfly | Mrs. Wilson WoodrowThe molting season had not yet arrived, nor would she have shed all these feathers at the same moment.
Bird Lore, Volume I--1899 | VariousThe specimens were molting (3-4 P old) into winter plumage and showed little or no subcutaneous fat.
Vertebrates from the Barrier Island of Tamaulipas, Mxico | Robert K SelanderHe thinks this seems to indicate that Loons lose the ability to fly during molting, as do the Anseres.
A certain melting and molten and molting lady had told him that he had poet's eyes like Julian Street's and was almost as witty.
We Can't Have Everything | Rupert Hughes
British Dictionary definitions for molt
/ (məʊlt) /
the usual US spelling of moult
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for molt
[ mōlt ]
To shed an outer covering, such as skin or feathers, for replacement by a new growth. Many snakes, birds, and arthropods molt.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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