Word.ws English Dictionary

desquamate

desquamate verb: to remove the scales from, to scale; (less narrowly) to peel.

Verb

desquamate (third-person singular simple present desquamates, present participle desquamating, simple past and past participle desquamated)

  1. (transitive) To remove the scales from, to scale; (less narrowly) to peel.
  2. (intransitive) To come off in the form of scales, to scale.

Forms of desquamate

third-person singular presentdesquamates
present participledesquamating
past participledesquamated
pastdesquamated

Origin of desquamate

First attested in 1740; borrowed from Latin dēsquāmātus, perfect passive participle of dēsquāmō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from dē- (“off”) + squāma (“a scale”) + -ō (“verb-forming suffix”).

Questions about desquamate

What does desquamate mean?
Desquamate means to remove the scales from, to scale; (less narrowly) to peel.
What part of speech is desquamate?
Desquamate is a verb.
What is the past tense of desquamate?
The past tense of desquamate is desquamated.

Words near desquamate in the dictionary

  1. despumations
  2. despume
  3. despumed
  4. despuming
  5. despun
  6. desquamate
  7. desquamated
  8. desquamates
  9. desquamating
  10. desquamation
  11. desquamations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: desquamate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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