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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
Mabinty Quarshie, The Washington Examiner, 28 Aug. 2025
Cleaver and other Kansas City lawmakers have excoriated the effort, framing it as a brazen and undemocratic power grab that would dampen the voting power of Kansas City and its nearby suburbs.
—Kacen Bayless, Kansas City Star, 22 Aug. 2025
On social media, the governor has crafted this new persona as a Trump-esque troll, posting in ALL CAPS and in Trump's signature style, generating AI memes at Trump's expense, excoriating MAGA as a bunch of lemmings and essentially playing POTUS' own game against him.
—Carlo Versano, MSNBC Newsweek, 21 Aug. 2025
Republican lawmakers excoriated members of the majority party for advancing the plan and questioned the motivations of Newsom, who is widely expected to run for president in 2028.
—Nicole Nixon, Sacbee.com, 21 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for excoriate
Cite this Entry
“Excoriate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/excoriate. Accessed 13 Sep. 2025.
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excoriate
verb
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