molt
pronunciation
How to pronounce molt in British English:
UK [məʊlt]
How to pronounce molt in American English:
US [molt]
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- Noun:
- periodic shedding of the cuticle in arthropods or the outer skin in reptiles
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- Verb:
- cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers
Word Origin
- molt (v.)
- also moult, mid-14c., mouten, of feathers, "to be shed," from Old English *mutian "to change" (in bemutian "to exchange"), from Latin mutare "to change" (see mutable). Transitive sense, of birds, "to shed feathers" is first attested 1520s. With parasitic -l-, late 16c., on model of fault, etc. Related: Molted, moulted; molting, moulting. As a noun from 1815.
Example
- 1. Like other penguins , it undergoes an annual molt , replacing all its feathers in a few weeks .
- 2. At the end of their laying cycle they are either slaughtered or forced to molt by water and food deprivation , which shocks them into another layer cycle .
- 3. They are active at night and live for many years , and females molt after maturity .
- 4. This is the last instar larval stage , which describes the times between each molt ( after an insect sheds its exoskeleton in order to grow ) until the insect reaches sexual maturity .
- 5. The peptides eclosion hormone ( eh ) and ecdysis-triggering hormone ( eth ) trigger ecdysis behaviors and other physiological changes which occur at the end of the molt .