desquamate
verb
Forms desquamates desquamating desquamated
- verb (transitive) To remove the scales from, to scale; (less narrowly) to peel.
- verb (intransitive) To come off in the form of scales, to scale.
Synonyms
Etymology
First attested in 1740; borrowed from Latin dēsquāmātus, perfect passive participle of dēsquāmō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from dē- (“off”) + squāma (“a scale”) + -ō (“verb-forming suffix”).
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [L. desquamatus, p. p. of desquamare to scale off; de- + squama scale.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “desquamate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details