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).
He was excoriated as a racist.
The candidates have publicly excoriated each other throughout the campaign.
Recent Examples on the WebThose two groups have excoriated hospitals’ high prices and profits and lobbied aggressively to ensure hospitals are held accountable for publishing pricing information.—Bob Herman, STAT, 10 July 2024 When McClanahan returned home and published an interview with Fatimah for The New York Times, however, outraged readers excoriated her.—Chelsea Leu, The Atlantic, 30 June 2024 No one should doubt that a Democratic vice-presidential nominee with a similar background and dearth of experience would be excoriated as unfit and unserious, evidence of the presidential nominee’s rotten judgment.—Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, 27 June 2024 Progressive pundits excoriate the Obama administration for expanding the power of the executive branch.—Christopher Swift, Foreign Affairs, 1 July 2012 See all Example Sentences for excoriate
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'excoriate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Middle English, from Late Latin excoriatus, past participle of excoriare, from Latin ex- + corium skin, hide — more at cuirass
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