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
Chad Murphy, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025
And the protein this baby junco needs to molt its blotchy juvenile feathers and to grow sleek stone-gray feathers on top and white ones below would come only from bugs.
—Madeline Bodin, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 June 2025
Susan Hall Mahon, Southern Living, 13 Apr. 2025
Males, known for their bright red plumage, molt to a yellow-green before migrating to the tropical Andean foothills.
—Alisha Camacho, Baltimore Sun, 28 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for molt
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Verb
Several people from the Greater Cincinnati area have posted photos to social media showing adult cicadas from Brood XIV resting on plants after molting, with their nymph shells nearby.
—Chad Murphy, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025
And the protein this baby junco needs to molt its blotchy juvenile feathers and to grow sleek stone-gray feathers on top and white ones below would come only from bugs.
—Madeline Bodin, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 June 2025
Noun
Soft-Shell Crab Refers to the brief time just after a blue crab molts, during which the entire shell is edible.
—Susan Hall Mahon, Southern Living, 13 Apr. 2025
Males, known for their bright red plumage, molt to a yellow-green before migrating to the tropical Andean foothills.
—Alisha Camacho, Baltimore Sun, 28 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for molt
Cite this Entry
“Molt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/molt. Accessed 21 Jul. 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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