as in shed
to cast (a natural bodily covering or appendage) aside
a crab molts its shell as it grows larger
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Recent Examples of molted
Our fish farm worked beautifully right up until the NewCoral molted, growing fins and fangs and one rocky fin, terrorizing the coastline and hunting the NewFish almost to NewExtinction.
—
Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025
Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for molted
Verb
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Over the course of less than an hour, the capsule will shed its clunky service module and dive toward Earth at 24,000 miles per hour.—
Meghan Bartels,
Scientific American,
9 Apr. 2026
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Satellite imagery from Planet Labs revealed the extent of the damage and shed light on how many lives were lost in the attack.—
Chelsea Gohd,
Space.com,
9 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The daughter peeled her mother’s hands away from Louise.—
Catherine Lacey,
New Yorker,
5 Apr. 2026
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Kroehler Park is surrounded by plastic netting that has been peeled back by foot traffic and wind.—
Naperville Sun,
Chicago Tribune,
3 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Molted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/molted. Accessed 12 Apr. 2026.
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