EXFOLIATE

exfoliate

(verb) grow by producing or unfolding leaves; “plants exfoliate”

exfoliate

(verb) come off in a very thin piece

exfoliate

(verb) remove the surface, in scales or laminae

exfoliate

(verb) cast off in scales, laminae, or splinters

exfoliate

(verb) spread by opening the leaves of

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

exfoliate (third-person singular simple present exfoliates, present participle exfoliating, simple past and past participle exfoliated)

To remove the leaves from a plant.

To remove a layer of skin, as in cosmetic preparation.

(mineralogy) To split into scales, especially to become converted into scales as the result of heat or decomposition.

Source: Wiktionary


Ex*fo"li*ate, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Exfoliated; p. pr. & vb. n. Exfoliating.] Etym: [L. exfoliare to strip of leaves; ex out, from + folium leaf.]

1. To separate and come off in scales or laminæ, as pieces of carious bone or of bark.

2. (Min.)

Definition: To split into scales, especially to become converted into scales at the result of heat or decomposition.

Ex*fo"li*ate v. t.

Definition: To remove scales, laminæ, or splinters from the surface of.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



RESET




Word of the Day

4 April 2025

GUILLOTINE

(verb) kill by cutting the head off with a guillotine; “The French guillotined many Vietnamese while they occupied the country”


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Coffee Trivia

The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.

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