‖ ecdysis
(ˈɛkdɪsɪs)
[mod.L., a. Gr. ἔκδυσις, f. ἐκδύειν to put off.]
The action of stripping or casting off, esp. of slough or dead skin in serpents and caterpillars, or of the chitinous integument in Crustacea. Also concr. that which is cast off, slough.
| 1854 J. Hogg Microsc. ii. iv. (1867) 581 The change consisting in what is termed ‘ecdysis’, a casting off, or moulting only. 1881 Nature XXIII. 380 There has not been observed any inert stage before the transformations or ecdysis. |
| fig. 1863 Huxley Man's Place Nat. ii. 58 A skin of some dimension was cast [by ‘the human larva’] in the 16th century..a new ecdysis seems imminent. 1876 M. & F. Collins Blacksmith & Sch. (1883) 191 There is to be an ecdysis. |