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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
Niall Stanage, The Hill, 21 Apr. 2025
McCarthy, an actress, model and talk show host, has been excoriated by the scientific community for her belief that vaccines caused her son to develop autism.
—Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA Today, 20 Apr. 2025
National security leaders’ use of Signal to discuss plans for airstrikes in Yemen made for a contentious hearing Tuesday, as Senate Intelligence Democrats excoriated Trump administration officials for their carelessness, and chat participants denied discussing classified information.
—Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill, 25 Mar. 2025
The dissenting justices excoriated the administration for abusing the Alien Enemies Act.
—Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill, 7 Apr. 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 3 May. 2025.
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excoriate
verb
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