the.com/molt
the art of outgrowing your own skin and walking away unbothered
means To shed an outer layer—feathers, skin, shell, or fur—so a new one can grow in its place.
from From Old English 'mūtian,' to change, borrowed from Latin 'mūtāre,' to change or exchange—the same root that gives us 'mutate' and 'mutual.' The 'l' is a latecomer that snuck in around the 16th century, possibly by analogy with words like 'fault' and 'salt,' until the spelling caught the bug too. So at its heart, to molt is simply to change—the body keeping its promise to the verb.
crab vulnerabilityFreshly molted crabs are soft, defenseless, and briefly edible as butter
snake eyewearSnakes shed their transparent eye caps with the skin
feather costMany birds can barely fly mid-molt, growing feathers is expensive
size limitInsects molt because their hard shell cannot stretch
lobster growthLobsters eat their old shells to recycle the calcium