a. Obs. [ad. L. exolēt-us, pa. pple. of exolēscĕre to grow up, grow out of use, f. ex- (see EX- pref.1) + ol- to grow; cf. adolēscĕre.] a. That has gone out of use; disused, obsolete. b. That has lost its virtue; effete, insipid. c. Of flowers: Faded.
a. 1611. Coryat, Crudities, 178. A Greeke inscription which I could not vnderstand by reason of the antiquity of those exolete letters.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. iv. I. v. In which [apothecaries’ shops] many … exolete, things out of date are to be had.
1651. Ld. Digby, etc. Lett. conc. Religion, iv. 125. Paganism is ridiculous, Judaism exolete.
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. (1834), 211. Plautus exolet phrases have been [exploded] from the eloquent orations of Ciceron.
1689. trans. Cowley’s Hist. Plants, Pref. b 2 b. I declaimed so vehemently against the use of exolete and interpolated repetitions of old Fables.
b. 1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 283. The vulgar Carpobalsame … being … faint, rancid, exolet.
1676. Phil. Trans., XI. 708. How exolete Blood falls asunder.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., X. 358/1. These Exoticks … are now and then deprived partly of their virtues and exolete.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Exolete, faded, or withered, as flowers.
