exfoliate
[eks-foh-lee-eyt]
- to throw off in scales, splinters, etc.
- to remove the surface of (a bone, the skin, etc.) in scales or laminae.
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- to throw off scales or flakes; peel off in thin fragments: The bark of some trees exfoliates.
- Geology.
- to split or swell into a scaly aggregate, as certain minerals when heated.
- to separate into rudely concentric layers or sheets, as certain rocks during weathering.
- Medicine/Medical. to separate and come off in scales, as scaling skin or any structure separating in flakes.
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Origin of exfoliate
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for exfoliate
Contemporary Examples
“I enjoy dating beardy blokes because you get to kiss and exfoliate at the same time,” she quips to The Daily Beast.
Historical Examples
The loch having been drained away, we proceeded to exfoliate the crannog.
Trees. A Woodland NotebookHerbert Maxwell
exfoliate
- (tr) to wash (a part of the body) with a granular cosmetic preparation in order to remove dead cells from the skin's surface
- (of bark, skin, etc) to peel off in (layers, flakes, or scales)
- (intr) (of rocks or minerals) to shed the thin outermost layer because of weathering or heating
- (of some minerals, esp mica) to split or cause to split into thin flakesa factory to exfoliate vermiculite
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Word Origin
C17: from Late Latin exfoliāre to strip off leaves, from Latin folium leaf
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for exfoliate
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper