| A.Word.A.Day | About | Media | Search | Contact | 
| Home 
 | Jun 26, 2009This week's theme Miscellaneous words This week's words eleemosynary obloquy palliate countervail excoriate This week's mail AWADmail 365 Next week's theme Slang  Discuss  Feedback  RSS/XML A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg excoriate
 PRONUNCIATION:(ik-SKOR-ee-ayt)   
 MEANING:verb tr.: 1. To severely criticize someone or something. 2. To strip off the skin. ETYMOLOGY:From Latin excoriare (to strip or to skin), ex- (out) + corium (skin, hide).
Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to cut) that is also the source
of words such as skirt, sharp, scrape, screw, shard, shears, carnage, curt,
carnivorous, hardscrabble, and
incarnadine. USAGE:"Why is she [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, president of Philippines] being
   excoriated for trying to implement her campaign promise?" Efren L. Danao; Give Light, Not Heat, to Cha-cha Issue; The Manila Times (Philippines); Jun 17, 2009. See more usage examples of excoriate in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. -Alexis de Tocqueville, statesman and historian (1805-1859) | 
 | 
© 1994-2025 Wordsmith