exuviate

ex•u•vi•ate (ig-ZOO-vee-eyt)  v

Definition:
to cast off or shed (exuviae); molt

exuviation noun

Origin:
1850–55; Latine exuvi(ae) "that which is stripped off," from stem of exuere, from PIE *eis- "to dress"  + -ate

Related:
Synonyms: molt, peel, slough, shed, decorticate

Sentence Examples:
• The shrimp when in confinement becomes very tame, and readily exuviates. The process is frequent, the integument separates entire, and is almost colourless.  -Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, 1852

• Rumors have circulated since the filming that she and Zhang Yimou were conjugating together, but they both refer to each other as "good friends." It's the Zhang Yimou factor that remains both her agony and ecstasy: hard as she tries to exuviate his influence, her contemporaries insist she's defined by it. Time Asia, 2000

• The lexicographers behind Britain's Collins English Dictionary have decided to exuviate  rarely used and archaic words as part of an abstergent  process to make room for up to 2,000 new entries. "We want the dictionary to be a reflection of English as it is currently spoken," says Ian Brookes, managing editor of Collins, "rather than a fossilized version of the language." - Time, 2008

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day