Definition of EXCORIATE

Did You Know?

Excoriate, which first appeared in English in the 15th century, comes from "excoriatus," the past participle of the Late Latin verb excoriare, meaning "to strip off the hide." "Excoriare" was itself formed from a pairing of the Latin prefix ex-, meaning "out," and corium, meaning "skin" or "hide" or "leather." "Corium" has several other descendants in English. One is "cuirass," a name for a piece of armor that covers the body from neck to waist (or something, such as bony plates covering an animal, that resembles such armor). Another is "corium" itself, which is sometimes used as a synonym of "dermis" (the inner layer of human skin).

Examples of excoriate in a Sentence

He was excoriated as a racist. The candidates have publicly excoriated each other throughout the campaign.

Recent Examples on the Web

The loudest of those criticisms reached the President through TV screens, where the conservative firebrand Ann Coulter excoriated the President for failing to get border wall funding. — Jeremy Diamond, CNN, "Trump's base-pleasing border tweets foreshadow 2018 role," 4 Apr. 2018 Four Merrill executives in jail for a year, overturned by Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and he was excoriated twice for withholding exculpatory evidence. — Callum Borchers, Washington Post, "Rudy Giuliani’s revealing interview with Sean Hannity, annotated," 3 May 2018 After aides roundly excoriated Democrats and journalists — two of Trump’s favorite targets — on morning news shows, the administration turned to welcoming Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. — Catherine Lucey, The Seattle Times, "Victory lap and accolades: Trump has, perhaps, best day ever," 26 Mar. 2019 This notorious polemic, for which the ADL eventually was forced to apologize, excoriated leaders like Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell Sr. and Phyllis Schlafly. — WSJ, "In Defense of the Anti-Defamation League," 31 July 2018 Russia, meanwhile, has been excoriated in the West for everything from poisoning a former spy and his daughter on foreign soil to stoking wars in Syria and Ukraine and meddling in Western elections. — New York Times, "China Won’t Play in This World Cup. It Still Hopes to Profit.," 30 May 2018 In other news of the week: On New Year’s Day, Mitt Romney penned an editorial in the Washington Post, excoriating the president for his lack of character. — Lynn Yaeger, Vogue, "The Week in Washington: A Shutdown with No End in Sight," 6 Jan. 2019 That, combined with an excoriating inspector general report that found Dr. Shulkin misspent public funds on travel, eventually led to his ouster. — New York Times, "V.A. Medical System Staggers as Chaos Engulfs Its Leadership," 4 May 2018 And the guy Trump wants to be the next attorney general—William Barr—auditioned for the job in June by submitting a lengthy unsolicited memo excoriating the Russia probe. — Lynn Yaeger, Vogue, "The Week in Washington: “The Most Chaotic Presidency Ever”," 23 Dec. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'excoriate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.