excoriate

English

WOTD – 3 July 2009

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈskɔɹ.iˌeɪt/, /ɪkˈskoʊɹ.iˌeɪt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Verb

excoriate (third-person singular simple present excoriates, present participle excoriating, simple past and past participle excoriated)

1. (transitive) to remove the skin and/or fur of, to flay, to skin
2. (transitive) To wear off the skin of; to chafe.

   Synonyms: abrade, chafe, flay

3. (transitive, figuratively) To strongly condemn or criticize.

   The teacher continued to excoriate the student after his academic issues.

   Synonyms: denounce, disparage, reprobate, tear a strip off, criticize, criticise

   • 2004, China Miéville, Iron Council, Trade paperback edition, published 2005, →ISBN, page 464:

     Madeleina di Farja had described Ori, and Cutter had envisaged an angry, frantic, pugnacious boy eager to fight, excoriating his comrades for supposed quiescence.

   • 2006 September 13, Patrick Healy, “Spitzer and Clinton Win in N.Y. Primary”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     Mr. Green, a former city public advocate and candidate for mayor in 2001, ran ads excoriating Mr. Cuomo’s ethics.

   • 2022 April 5, Tina Brown, “How Princess Diana’s Dance With the Media Impacted William and Harry”, in Vanity Fair‎^[2]:

     The tabloids branded him forevermore as the “love rat,” and Pasternak was excoriated for peddling mawkish fantasy.

     adapted from the book The Palace Papers, published 2022 by Penguin Books

   • 2024 September 4, Robert Booth, Emine Sinmaz, “Police under pressure to accelerate criminal investigation into Grenfell fire”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     Police are under pressure to accelerate the criminal investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire after an excoriating report found that companies operated with “systematic dishonesty” and that all 72 deaths were avoidable.

Derived terms

• excoriator
• excoriation

Translations

to remove the skin and/or the fur of — see flay,‎ skin

to wear off the skin of

• Armenian: կաշին քերթել (hy) (kašin kʻertʻel)
• Bulgarian: одирам (bg) (odiram), обелвам (bg) (obelvam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: sedřít, stáhnout (cs)
• Dutch: schrammen (nl)
• Finnish: hiertää (fi)
• French: excorier (fr)
• Galician: excoriar (gl)
• German: abschürfen (de), abscheuern, wund reiben
• Greek: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: horzsol (hu), felhorzsol (hu), feldörzsöl (hu), kidörzsöl (hu), (wound/injure): felsebez (hu), lehorzsol (hu)
• Italian: escoriare
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: лупи (lupi), дере (dere)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: hudflette
• Portuguese: escoriar (pt)
• Quechua: iqhay
• Russian: сса́живать (ru) (ssáživatʹ), сдира́ть ко́жу (sdirátʹ kóžu)
• Scottish Gaelic: rùisg
• Slovene: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: excoriar (es)
• Swedish: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: please add this translation if you can

to strongly denounce or censure

• Catalan: condemnar (ca), censurar (ca), reprovar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: ztrhat
• Danish: fordømme, hudflette
• Dutch: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: haukkua pataluhaksi, ripittää (fi), sättiä (fi)
• French: fustiger (fr)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: scharf verurteilen, vernichtend kritisieren, mit vernichtender Kritik überziehen, kein gutes Haar lassen an
• Greek: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: ostoroz (hu), élesen bírál, lehord (hu), ledorongol (hu), lesújtó / megsemmisítő kritikával illet
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: осудува (osuduva)
• Maori: whakakinokino
• Norwegian: hudflette
• Russian: разноси́ть (ru) (raznosítʹ), поноси́ть (ru) (ponosítʹ), громи́ть (ru) (gromítʹ)
• Slovene: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: fustigar (es)
• Swedish: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

• exoterica

Latin

Verb

excoriāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of excoriō

Spanish

Verb

excoriate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of excoriar combined with te