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This week's theme Miscellaneous words This week's words eleemosynary obloquy palliate countervail excoriate Today's word in Visual Thesaurus This week's mail AWADmail 365 Next week's theme Slang AWAD Premium An ad-free, paid edition of AWAD. Subscribe yourself or send a gift subscription. Discuss Feedback RSS/XML A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg excoriate PRONUNCIATION: (ik-SKOR-ee-ayt) MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To severely criticize someone or something. 2. To strip off the skin. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin excoriare (to strip or to skin), ex- (out) + corium (skin, hide). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to cut) that is also the source of words such as skirt, sharp, scrape, screw, shard, shears, carnage, curt, carnivorous, hardscrabble, and incarnadine. USAGE: "Why is she [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, president of Philippines] being excoriated for trying to implement her campaign promise?" Efren L. Danao; Give Light, Not Heat, to Cha-cha Issue; The Manila Times (Philippines); Jun 17, 2009. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. -Alexis de Tocqueville, statesman and historian (1805-1859)

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