What does "desquamate" mean?

To remove the scales from, to scale; (less narrowly) to peel.

What is a synonym for "desquamate"?

Common synonyms include: exfoliate, flake, flake off, laminate, lay down, layer.

Desquamate

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1
To remove the scales from, to scale; (less narrowly) to peel. transitive
2
peel off in scales wordnet
3
To come off in the form of scales, to scale. intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

exfoliate flake flake off laminate lay down layer

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”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.