To molt is to shed outer skin, hair, feathers or other outer layer to make room for new growth.
(verb)When a snake sheds its skin to grow a new layer of skin, this is an example of when the snake molts.
See molt in Webster's New World College Dictionary
intransitive verb
Origin: ME mouten (with unhistoric -l- after fault, in which the letter was orig. silent) < OE (be)mutian, to exchange < L mutare, to change: see mutate
transitive verb
noun
Related Forms:
See molt in American Heritage Dictionary 4
verb molt·ed, molt·ing, molts verb, intransitive
Origin:
Origin: Alteration of Middle English mouten
Origin: , from Old English -mūtian (in bemūtian, to exchange for)
Origin: , from Latin mūtāre, to change; see mei-1 in Indo-European roots
.Related Forms:
Learn more about molt