Also pa. pple. 6–9 EXCORIATE. [f. L. excoriāt- ppl. stem of excoriāre to strip off the hide, f. ex- out + corium hide.]
† 1. trans. To pull off the skin or hide from (a man or beast); to flay. Obs.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, III. 41. Otanes … whom Cambyses had excoriated for false judgement.
a. 1653. Gouge, Comm. Hebr. iv. 13 (1655), 454. Beasts … being excoriated or flayed, were cut down from the neck to the rump, all along the back-bone.
a. 1681. Sir G. Wharton, Fasts & Fest., Wks. (1683), 26. He [Saint Bartholomew] was the first day beaten with Cudgels; the next, Crucifi’d and Excoriated, or fleaed alive, as fastned on the Cross.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, II. xv. 77. They compliment them [their victims] upon … the delicacy of their limbs prior to excoriating them.
b. transf. To strip off the rind or bark from.
1775. Ash, Excoriating, taking off the bark.
2. To remove portions of the skin (or analogous membrane) from. Now chiefly Path. of the action of corrosives, of abrasion, etc.
1497. Bp. Alcock, Mons Perfect., E ij a. Excoriate and wounde dayly theyr self with sharpe hayr.
1605. Timme, Quersit., I. xiii. 60. The intralls being excoriated, death by a lingering consumption ensueth.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 109. The ends of his Fingers are supposed to be excoriated.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 77. Stuffing my nose with spirit of hartshorn, till the whole inside was excoriated.
1857. C. Brontë, Professor, II. xx. 104. My lips … were excoriated as with vinegar and gall.
1867. F. H. Ludlow, Little Briggs & I, 201. The grand Barkerian idea of how to fix it in a boy’s memory was to send him to bed, or excoriate his palm.
3. transf. and fig.
1633. J. Fisher, True Trojans, III. viii. in Hazl., Dodsley, XII. 506. Though wrongs excoriate the heart.
1661. R. W., Conf. Charac., Colledge Butler (1860), 67. He can excoriate a loafe.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais (1737), V. 233. Excoriating the Language Latiale.
1809. Naval Chron., XXV. 209. It [lightning] … excoriated the lower part of the head post.
4. To strip or peel off (the skin); to remove (the lining membrane) by corrosion.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, cix. 41 b. Excoriat the skyn and maturat the matter.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 71. Because it [the skin] may bee excoriated or flayed off.
a. 1691. Boyle, Hist. Air, xix. (1692), 157. The Heat of the Island Suaquena, Gregory used to call Infernal: For, says he, it excoriates the Skin.
1767. Gooch, Treat. Wounds, I. 445. To prevent … the matter … from excoriating the skin.
1843. Bethune, Scott. Peasant’s Fire-side, 62. Exuding acrid matter, and thereby excoriating the cuticle.
