molted; molting; molts
: to shed hair, feathers, shell, horns, or an outer layer periodically
Birds molt once or twice a year.
: to cast off (an outer covering) periodically
specifically
: to throw off (the old cuticle (see cuticle sense 1))
—used of arthropods
a spider, like a lobster, molts its covering as it grows —
Eugene Kinkead
Eugene Kinkead
molter
noun
Examples of molt in a Sentence
Verb
Snakes molt as they grow, shedding the old skin and growing a larger new skin.
a crab molts its shell as it grows larger
Recent Examples on the Web
Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025
Extreme drought is causing breeding grounds, molting spots and migration stopover sites to vanish.
—The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 7 Aug. 2025
Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 23 Aug. 2025
Contrary to Sharp’s red-herring insistence that ta-da! is a familiar coming-out story, the show molts into an anxiety piece about the mind of the overachiever.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 22 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for molt
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Verb
Our fish farm worked beautifully right up until the NewCoral molted, growing fins and fangs and one rocky fin, terrorizing the coastline and hunting the NewFish almost to NewExtinction.
—Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025
Extreme drought is causing breeding grounds, molting spots and migration stopover sites to vanish.
—The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 7 Aug. 2025
Noun
During this time, the adults molt and don’t fly.
—Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 23 Aug. 2025
Contrary to Sharp’s red-herring insistence that ta-da! is a familiar coming-out story, the show molts into an anxiety piece about the mind of the overachiever.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 22 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for molt
Cite this Entry
“Molt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/molt. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
molt
1 of 2 verb
: to shed hair, feathers, outer skin, shell, or horns with the cast-off parts being replaced by a new growth
molt
2 of 2 noun
: the act, process, or period of molting
Medical Definition
molt
1 of 2 intransitive verb
variants
or chiefly British moult
: to shed hair, feathers, shell, horns, or an outer layer periodically
: to cast off (an outer covering) periodically
specifically
: to throw off (the old cuticle)
—used of arthropods
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