Word.ws English Dictionary

excarnificate

excarnificate verb: to strip (something or someone) of flesh, perhaps as a form of torture.

Verb

excarnificate (third-person singular simple present excarnificates, present participle excarnificating, simple past and past participle excarnificated)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To strip (something or someone) of flesh, perhaps as a form of torture.
    • VVhat ſhall vve ſay to the multitudes of thoſe that are thus martyred, […] VVhat are to the racking and excarnificating their bodies, before this laſt puniſhment?1664, H[enry] More, chapter XV, in A Modest Enquiry into the Mystery of Iniquity, […], London: […] J[ames] Flesher for W[illiam] Morden […], →OCLC, book II, page 167
    Synonyms:
    excarnate

Synonyms of excarnificate

Forms of excarnificate

third-person singular presentexcarnificates
present participleexcarnificating
past participleexcarnificated
pastexcarnificated

Origin of excarnificate

From Latin ex (“out”) + carnificatus, past participle carnificare (“to carnify”). Compare Latin excarnificare (“to tear to pieces, torment”). See carnify.

Questions about excarnificate

What does excarnificate mean?
Excarnificate means to strip (something or someone) of flesh, perhaps as a form of torture.
What part of speech is excarnificate?
Excarnificate is a verb.
What is the past tense of excarnificate?
The past tense of excarnificate is excarnificated.

Words near excarnificate in the dictionary

  1. excarnated
  2. excarnates
  3. excarnating
  4. excarnation
  5. excarnations
  6. excarnificate
  7. excarnificated
  8. excarnificates
  9. excarnificating
  10. excarnification
  11. excarpment

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: excarnificate (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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