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excoriate

US/ɪkˈskɔɹ.iˌeɪt/
verbC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: excoriated, excoriating, excoriates

To excoriate is to criticise savagely, or to strip the skin off. Excoriate a report.

The literal sense is medical and the figurative one is far commoner in print. To excoriate somebody is to leave nothing of their argument standing.

Definitions of excoriate

  1. 1verbexcoriateTo criticise savagely, or to strip the skin off.C2

    “The judgment excoriated everybody involved.”

excoriate is an action.

Where it comes from

Latin excoriare, to strip the hide off, from corium, skin or leather.

  1. Latin

    excoriātus

  2. Middle English

    excoriaten

  3. English, today

    excoriate

Built from

  • excoriō · Latin — to take the skin or hide off, flay, skin
  • ex- · Latin — out off, from
  • corium · Latin — hide, skin

First attested in the first part of the 15th century, in Middle English; Middle English excoriaten, borrowed from Latin excoriātus perfect passive participle of excoriō (“to take the skin or hide off, flay, skin”), from ex- (“out off, from”) + corium (“hide, skin”) + -ō. Regular participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English, later archaic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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