From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmoultmoult British English, molt American English /məʊlt $ moʊlt/ verb [intransitive] HBBHBAwhen a bird or animal moults, it loses feathers or hair so that new ones can grow —moult noun [countable, uncountable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
moult• By August the male will have begun to moult and will become almost indistinguishable from the female.• The dragonfly nymphs may take up to 2 years before they moult into the adult form.• No, he had been moulting, like a bird.• You can not but feel that Aisling O'Sullivan, moulting magnificently like a sick eagle, is having a high old time.• As they grow they moult several times.• One day she carried a tall moulting sunflower into the Staff Room.• Periodically, they moult their thin transparent skins, changing shape as they do so.• The larva moults to give rise to the four-legged nymph, which, after five more days, becomes the adult mite. 