Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To censure strongly; denounce.
  • transitive verb To criticize (something) harshly.
  • transitive verb To tear, scrape, or wear off (the skin).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To flay; strip off the skin of.
  • Hence To abrade; gall; break and remove the outer layers of (the skin) in any manner.

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

  • transitive verb To strip or wear off the skin of; to abrade; to gall; to break and remove the cuticle of, in any manner, as by rubbing, beating, or by the action of acrid substances.

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

  • verb transitive To wear off the skin of; to chafe or flay.
  • verb transitive To strongly denounce or censure.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb express strong disapproval of
  • verb tear or wear off the skin or make sore by abrading

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English excoriaten, from Latin excoriāre, excoriāt- : ex-, ex- + corium, skin; see sker- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin excoriātus, perfect participle of Latin excoriō ("take the skin or hide off, flay"). from ex ("off") + corium ("hide, skin").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Partial rhyme with decorate. Other than that, I don't know why it popped into my head. See Free Association.

    February 4, 2008

  • EXTREMELY strong!!!! HHKJASG;NDSK;HJBR HFDKDJGHUJUKGVJND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    July 24, 2015