Molt, or moult
Verb
Etymology: from Middle English mouten, and this one from Latin mutare (= to change)
Indicative past, past participle: moulted or molted
Present participle: moulting or molting
Intransitively:
Definition: a. (Of a bird) to experience the moult; to shed its feathers, as part of a process of renewing them. b. (Of any other animal) to shed its hair, horns, outer layer of the skin, or the like, as part of a process of renewing them.
It may be approximately translated by mudar, in Spanish; muer, in French; mutare, in Italian.
The Mocking Bird is nine and a half inches long, and thirteen in breadth. Some individuals are, however, larger, and some smaller, those of the first hatch being uniformly the biggest and stoutest. The upper parts of the head, neck, and back, are a dark, brownish ash, and when new moulted, a fine light gray.
Alexander Wilson (American ornithology)
Catherine's garden still flourishes, though it is long since the birds which she there fed moulted for the last time.
Johann Kohl (Russia and the Russians)
The robin loses nearly all the characteristic color from its breast in the summer, when it moults, and only recovers it on the approach of autumn.
John Leonard Knapp (The Journal of a Naturalist)
The ptarmigan, for instance, moults twice or even thrice in the year, and the black-cock only once.
Charles Darwin (The Descent of Man)
It is observed, that those horses who are kept in warm stables, and well fed, moult early in the spring; those that run abroad at grass moult much later. But, if the former should be exposed to cold winds or rain for any length of time together, by being turned out to pasture, or from their being in any shape exposed to cold weather, after they have once moulted, or cast their winter coat, that their hair will then grow thicker and longer.
James Clark (… prevention of diseases incidental to horses)
Like other Crustacea, it is probable that the crab moults once a year in its younger days.
Thomas Phipson (The utilization of minute life)
Transitively:
Definition: a. (Of a bird) to shed (feathers), as part of a process of renewing them. b. (Of any other animal) to shed (hair, horns, outer layer of the skin, or the like) as part of a process of renewing them; to renew by molting
It may be approximately translated by mudar, in Spanish; muer, in French; mutare, in Italian.
Synonym: to mew
Mr Edwards saw two of these birds alive in London, in cages; the person in whose custody they were, said they came from Norway; that they had moulted their feathers, and were not afterwards so beautiful as they were at first.
Alexander Wilson (American ornithology)
The ermine, as was said, is remarkable among these for the softness, the closeness, and the warmth of its fur. It is brown in summer, like the weasel, and changes colour before the winter is begun, becoming a beautiful cream colour, all except the tip of the tail, as was said before, which still continues black. Mr. Daubenton had one of these brought him with its white winter fur, which he put into a cage and kept, in order to observe the manner of moulting its hair.
Oliver Goldsmith (An history of the earth)
[…] the snake moults its skin.
Barry Walker, Huw Lloyd (Peruvian Wildlife)
