denude
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make naked or bare; strip.
The storm completely denuded the trees.
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Geology. to subject to denudation.
verb
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to divest of covering; make bare; uncover; strip
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to expose (rock) by the erosion of the layers above
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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denudesimple
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denudessimple
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have denudedperfect
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has denudedperfect
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am denudingprogressive
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are denudingprogressive
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is denudingprogressive
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have been denudingperfect progressive
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has been denudingperfect progressive
Past
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denudedsimple
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had denudedperfect
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was denudingprogressive
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were denudingprogressive
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had been denudingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of denude
First recorded in 1505–15; from Latin dēnūdāre, equivalent to dē- de- + nūdāre “to lay bare”; see nude
Explanation
When you denude something, you expose it by taking away what covers or protects it. Loggers who clearcut forests denude them of all trees. There are both natural and human-related ways to denude a piece of land or an area of the earth's surface. The erosion of sea water on the coast can denude beaches and coastlines, eroding and wearing them away. Pesticides used on large farms can denude entire regions of honey bees. The word comes from a Latin root, denudare, "to lay bare, strip, or expose," from de-, "away," and nudare, "to strip."
Vocabulary lists containing denude
Selected Short Stories of H.G. Wells
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The Underground Railroad
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Wise Blood
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Our study shows that burros can denude wetlands but only when mountain lions are absent,” Dr. Lundgren said.
From New York Times ● Aug. 15, 2022
They’re also here to eat huge swaths of cropland, denude trees and other plant life, and generally wreak havoc on the West and its agriculture.
From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2021
They have a voracious appetite that can denude entire forests of leaves, said University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum, a past society president.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 9, 2021
They're also being told not to denude grocery shelves by hoarding food and other essentials.
From Salon ● Mar. 21, 2020
Biscuit was a little awkward, but he managed to denude a large potato of its foliage and handed it to Sube for approval.
From Sube Cane by Partridge, Edward Bellamy
An ideological move away from globalization by some countries and the encouragement of reshoring that denudes comparative advantage benefits may also lift prices.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 22, 2025
“This denial denudes them of their right to worship,” Chief Justice Dipak Misra, who has since retired, wrote in his opinion.
From New York Times ● Oct. 18, 2018
So too does pianist Kristof Van Grysperre, whose crisp, unsentimental playing startlingly denudes Poulenc's orchestral score.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2016
The overqualified actors often give quirky life to a script that denudes their characters of nuance.
From Time ● Oct. 7, 2014
Heavy rains and the melting of the upper snow banks by warm Chinook winds combine to produce a surface run-off that denudes the steeper declivities down to the underlying bedrock.
From The Forests of Mount Rainier National Park by Allen, Grenville F.
At Galeries Lafayette on Tuesday, as employees packed away denuded mannequins, admissions officer Li said she thought the store had been too reliant on "the traditional... business model that has existed for decades in France".
From Barron's ● May 27, 2026
Food, initially plentiful after the Germans denuded the farms of occupied Europe, became scarcer and worse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
It looked desolate and black — destroyed businesses, block after block of homes burned to the ground, the mountains behind denuded and black as coal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2026
The most notable began in 1978, when foresters began hand-replanting mangroves at the mouth of the Saigon River in Cần Giờ forest, an area that had been completely denuded.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2025
Sosie led the way through ruined trees and denuded earth.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
She is among those who think that this all nods to an "odd relationship" with trees – one of "simultaneously adoring and denuding woodlands".
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2025
During the panel at Columbia Law, Roderick Ferguson, Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and American Studies at Yale University warned against the "denuding of African American studies of the things that degrade."
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2023
“Our mental health, our immunity, our ability to stay well is dependent on these ecologies inside of us. And it’s not about taking more pills, it’s about stopping the stress that’s denuding our microbiota.”
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 23, 2021
And how Hollywood, in some cases, was happy to do the denuding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2020
“Nice job denuding your face, by the way,” she said, waggling her fingers under her chin to indicate his shave.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
