denude

[dih-nood, -nyood]

verb (used with object)

denuded, denuding 

1. to make naked or bare; strip.

   The storm completely denuded the trees.

2. Geology.,  to subject to denudation.

denude

/ ˌdiː-, dɪˈnjuːd, ˌdɛnjʊˈdeɪʃən /

verb

1. to divest of covering; make bare; uncover; strip

2. to expose (rock) by the erosion of the layers above

Other Word Forms

• denuded adjective
• denuder noun
• denudation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of denude¹

First recorded in 1505–15; from Latin dēnūdāre, equivalent to dē- de- + nūdāre “to lay bare”; nude

Word History and Origins

Origin of denude¹

C16: from Latin dēnūdāre; see _nude

Example Sentences

The foreground is a scar of denuded earth, storage tanks and bobbing pumpjacks — the legacy of oil discovered a century ago when only farmhouses were scattered over the surrounding flatlands.

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The Victorians worried about a “world denuded of larger significance,” but we suffer from both material surfeit and spiritual abundance, and are captive to a surplus of competing and increasingly angry gods.

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Surrounding hillsides, significantly denuded of plant life, are dotted with scores of freshly cut stumps.

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Moments later, it emerged as a landscape denuded of all color save brown and gray and the occasional red-rimmed maw of a destroyed brick rooftop.

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The stream banks were denuded of vegetation and the riffle crests obliterated as the choked stream tried to reach the sea.

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