[f. EXCORIATE v.: see -ATION. Cf. F. excoriation.]

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  1.  The action of excoriating; the state of being excoriated: † a. the action or process of flaying (a man or beast (obs.)); b. the action of abrading a portion of the cuticle, or of the coating of any organ of the body; an instance of this; c. the action of stripping off (the bark of a tree).

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  a.  1607.  Brewer, Lingua, III. v. A little before the excoriation of Marsyas.

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1635.  Austin, Medit., 220. Some keep the day of his [Bartholomew’s] Excoriation; and some, the day of his Decollation holy.

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1669.  Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. II. ix. 161. After the killing of the Holocaust, follows the excoriation, and dissection.

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  b.  1447.  Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 259. The reed flyx … wyth of the guttys excoryacyoun Sendyth owte sangweyn agestyoun.

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1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, IV. lxxx. 544. They drinke it [tragacanth] … against … excoriation or knawing of the bladder.

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1596.  Danett, trans. Comines, 296. A sharpe sicknes of excoriation and the stone.

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1664.  H. More, Myst. Iniq., xxii. 84. What Flagellations and Excoriations of the Body!

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1751.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 133, ¶ 3. I was punished with artificial excoriations in hopes of gaining new graces with a new skin.

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1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VII. 99. The Germans … complained of a slight excoriation of the lips.

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1813.  W. Heberden, in Med. Trans. (1815), V. 39. Stopping the Excoriation … consequent upon continual Pressure in Bed.

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1844.  Tupper, Twins, xv. Lash, lash, lash, in furious and fast succession … to the universal excoriation of Mr. Julian Tracy.

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  c.  1830.  J. G. Strutt, Sylva Brit., 125. The constant excoriation of the bark also produces a variety of hues.

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  2.  fig.

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1640.  Howell, Dodona’s Gr., 207. Hee hath marvailously enhanc’d the revenues, and perquisits of the Crowne,… though with a pitifull excoriation of the poorer sort.

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1651.  Baxter, Inf. Bapt., Apol. 22. It is the excoriation and exulceration of mens spirits that usually causeth the smart.

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  3.  An excoriated place (on the body): a sore.

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c. 1540.  in Vicary’s Anat., App. ix. (1888), 221. A plastre devised by the kinges Maiestie at G[r]enewich, and made at Westminstre, to … heale excoriacions.

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1751.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., He had a grievous excoriation behind, with riding post.

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1874.  trans. Van Buren’s Dis. Genit. Org., 19. The epithelium comes off in patches, leaving irregular excoriations.

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