Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • n. sing. of exuviæ.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun biology The remains of an exoskeleton that is left after an insect, crustacean or arachnid has molted.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin exuvia, from exuo.

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Examples

  • Looks like some kind of flower … hehe on September 9, 2008 at 3: 53 pm | Reply exuvia what a beautiful image! on September 11, 2008 at 2: 27 pm | Reply Lyvvie

    Bento #159 « Were rabbits 2008

  • This hideous circle never widened; Nature always appeared to roll back the intruding debris; no bird nor beast carried it away; no animal ever forced the uncleanly barrier; civilization remained grimly trenched in its own exuvia.

    Colonel Starbottle's Client Bret Harte 1869

  • Seeing the snake cast its old slough and glide forth renewed, he conceives, so in death man but sheds his fleshly exuvia, while the spirit emerges, regenerate.

    The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life William Rounseville Alger 1863

  • Does the butterfly ever come back to put on the exuvia that have perished in the ground?

    The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life William Rounseville Alger 1863

  • The surface was covered with their small round grey exuvia.

    Snow Shoes and Canoes The Early Days of a Fur-Trader in the Hudson Bay Territory William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • It is not conclufive that all calcareous fubftances are derived from the exuvia of marine animals.

    The Monthly Review 1795

  • If we consider, in fact, that by far the largest proportion of recorded existing species are known only by the study of their skins, or bones, or other lifeless exuvia; that we are acquainted with none, or next to none, of their physiological peculiarities, beyond those which can be deduced from their structure, or are open to cursory observation; and that we cannot hope to learn more of any of those extinct forms of life which now constitute no inconsiderable proportion of the known Flora and

    Lectures and Essays Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

  • If we consider, in fact, that by far the largest proportion of recorded existing species are known only by the study of their skins, or bones, or other lifeless exuvia; that we are acquainted with none, or next to none, of their physiological peculiarities, beyond those which can be deduced from their structure, or are open to cursory observation; and that we cannot hope to learn more of any of those extinct forms of life which now constitute no inconsiderable proportion of the known Flora and

    Origin of Species Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

  • If we consider, in fact, that by far the largest proportion of recorded existing species are known only by the study of their skins, or bones, or other lifeless exuvia; that we are acquainted with none, or next to none, of their physiological peculiarities, beyond those which can be deduced from their structure, or are open to cursory observation; and that we cannot hope to learn more of any of those extinct forms of life which now constitute no inconsiderable proportion of the known Flora and

    Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews Thomas Henry Huxley 1860

  • The color of that oak paneling which you admire is due to an excess of carbon and the exuvia from the pores of your skin "--

    The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers Bret Harte 1869

Comments

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  • Cool. Now I know what to call a cicada's exoskeleton. Cicada exuvia! (I hope I'm pronouncing it correctly.)

    August 24, 2020