moult
verb
[ məʊlt ]
• (of an animal) shed old feathers, hair, or skin to make way for a new growth.
• "the adult birds were already moulting"
moult
noun
• a loss of feathers, hair, or skin, especially as a regular feature of an animal's life cycle.
• "the mountain goat is brilliant white after the autumn moult"
Origin:
Middle English moute, from an Old English verb based on Latin mutare ‘to change’. For the intrusive -l-, compare with words such as fault .
