Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MOLT, v.i. [W. moel, bald, bare, also as a noun, a heap, pile or conical hill with a smooth top; moeli, to heap or pile to make bald. So bald, in English, seems to be connected with bold, that is, prominent.]

To shed or cast the hair, feathers, skin, horns, &c; as an animal. Fowls molt by losing their feathers, beasts by losing their hair, serpents by casting their skins, and deer their horns. The molting of the hawk is called mewing.