exfoliate
Americanverb (used with object)
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exfoliates,
present (3rd person singular)
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exfoliated,
past participle, past
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exfoliating
present participle
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to throw off in scales, splinters, etc.
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to remove the surface of (a bone, the skin, etc.) in scales or laminae.
verb (used without object)
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exfoliates,
present (3rd person singular)
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exfoliated,
past participle, past
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exfoliating
present participle
-
to throw off scales or flakes; peel off in thin fragments.
The bark of some trees exfoliates.
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Geology.
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to split or swell into a scaly aggregate, as certain minerals when heated.
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to separate into rudely concentric layers or sheets, as certain rocks during weathering.
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Medicine/Medical. to separate and come off in scales, as scaling skin or any structure separating in flakes.
verb
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(tr) to wash (a part of the body) with a granular cosmetic preparation in order to remove dead cells from the skin's surface
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(of bark, skin, etc) to peel off in (layers, flakes, or scales)
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(intr) (of rocks or minerals) to shed the thin outermost layer because of weathering or heating
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(of some minerals, esp mica) to split or cause to split into thin flakes
a factory to exfoliate vermiculite
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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exfoliatesimple
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exfoliatessimple
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have exfoliatedperfect
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has exfoliatedperfect
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am exfoliatingprogressive
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are exfoliatingprogressive
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is exfoliatingprogressive
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have been exfoliatingperfect progressive
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has been exfoliatingperfect progressive
Past
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exfoliatedsimple
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had exfoliatedperfect
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was exfoliatingprogressive
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were exfoliatingprogressive
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had been exfoliatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of exfoliate
First recorded in 1605–15; from Late Latin exfoliātus, past participle of exfoliāre “to strip off leaves”; see origin at ex- 1, foliate
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:
Treatments will clean, exfoliate and moisturize the scalp, and they will include a gentle head massage.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026
These are like facial masks for your feet, and many make lofty promises to remove calluses, exfoliate your skin and make your feet feel smoother and softer.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 19, 2022
“The body treatment is especially nice because you’re able to exfoliate away a lot of the summer grime and get your skin ready for the fall season,” Holm explains.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 29, 2021
Don’t wash your face, don’t exfoliate, don’t put a tea-tree serum on it.
From Slate ● Jan. 30, 2019
No people can bear a true nationality, which does not exfoliate, as it were, from its bosom, something that expresses the peculiarities of its own soil and climate.
From An Address, Delivered Before the Was-ah Ho-de-no-son-ne or New Confederacy of the Iroquois Also, Genundewah, a Poem by William H. C. (William Howe Cuyler) Hosmer
“If you don’t like ‘Crazy,’ there’s something wrong with you,” Lenae says as a pedicurist exfoliates her feet in a West Hollywood hotel room.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2025
The spa’s most popular body treatment is the Honey Glow Body Wrap, which exfoliates your entire body in a warm wrap of honey.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 29, 2021
It exfoliates with Dead Sea salt crystals, and the formula includes tea tree oil, which can help heal spots and scars.
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2020
But overuse of a brush that exfoliates can cause skin to become inflamed and red.
From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2019
When heated before the blowpipe, the mineral exfoliates, owing to loss of water, and on this account was named apophyllite by R.J.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 3 "Apollodorus" to "Aral" by Various
After addressing structural problems such as loss of adhesion and exfoliated paint, the restorers then used reversible techniques -- including watercolour paint -- to "stitch" everything back together, she said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
For 45 minutes, a “Q-facial” machine sprayed, vacuumed, exfoliated and hydrated my face, delivering ultrasonic waves at two different depths.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
In their experiments, they started with a small block of graphite, from which they carefully exfoliated individual flakes.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2023
Herzog’s dialogue, pruning the social floweriness and conversational whorls of Ibsen’s naturalism, gets right to the point of every line, leaving the text raw and red, as if exfoliated.
From New York Times ● Mar. 9, 2023
“Yeah. I have five humongous bug bites on my legs and arms, my butt crack has been thoroughly exfoliated with sand, I’m hungry, exhausted, and I haven’t seen a ship anywhere.”
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
They swirled hand-muddled blueberries and raw honey into organic, sugar-free yogurt for his facial; they stirred exfoliating Japanese volcanic sand into mineral-rich Korean mud for his hydrating mask.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2025
"I have to undergo a lot of treatment every day, which takes three to five hours and involves bath emollients, creaming and exfoliating," she said.
From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2025
When the trees shed their puzzle-piece bark, it’s like they’re exfoliating: They deposit pollutants into the soil, preventing them from entering local waterways or our lungs, while jettisoning damaged bark.
From Slate ● Mar. 16, 2024
The researchers fabricated two samples of the hybrid graphene structure by first exfoliating graphene layers from a block of graphite, then using optical tools to identify five-layered flakes in the steplike configuration.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 21, 2024
Ifemelu had finished and Aunty Uju was coating an exfoliating mask on her face when The General called to say he could no longer come.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
