EXFOLIATE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Exfoliate

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verb

Exfoliate v. i. (past & past part. exfoliated; pres. part. exfoliating)

To separate and come off in scales or laminae, as pieces of carious bone or of bark.

(Min.) To split into scales, especially to become converted into scales at the result of heat or decomposition.

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Etymology of 'Exfoliate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Exfoliate" Quotes from Famous Books

... group of micaceous minerals known as the vermiculites, which have resulted by the alteration of the micas, particularly biotite and phlogopite. The name is from the Latin vermiculor, "to breed worms," because when heated before the blowpipe these minerals exfoliate into long worm-like threads. They have the same chemical constituents as the chlorites, but the composition is variable and indefinite, varying with that of the original mineral and the extent of its alteration. Several indistinct ...

— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 - "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" • Various

Words linked to "Exfoliate" : drop, spread, shake off, unfold, exfoliation, break off, throw off, break away, throw away, cast off, cast, open, throw, peel off, spread out