écailler
French, verb/e.ka.je/
écailler is spelled É-C-A-I-L-L-E-R (8 letters) and appears about once in every 10 million words in written French, the 101,144th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Écailler is a French verb meaning “to scale (a fish)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Dépouiller les écailles d’un poisson, d’un reptile, etc”.
What does écailler mean in English?
verb
- 1
to scale (a fish)
- 2
to shuck (an oyster)
- 3
to chip (paintwork)
- 4
(of paint, varnish etc.) to chip, flake (off)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Dépouiller les écailles d’un poisson, d’un reptile, etc. 2. Couvrir d’un ornement, d’un décor en forme d’écaille. 3. Donner la couleur de l'écaille de tortue à un objet. 4. Gratter le plomb avant de le souder.
noun: 1. Personne qui ouvre des huîtres pour les vendre.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of écailler
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- écaillant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- écaillé participle past
- écaille first-person indicative present
- écailles indicative present second-person
- écaillons first-person indicative plural
- écaillez indicative plural present
- écaillent indicative plural present
- écaillais first-person imperfect indicative
- écaillait imperfect indicative singular
- écaillions first-person imperfect indicative
- écailliez imperfect indicative plural
- écaillaient imperfect indicative plural
- écaillai first-person historic indicative
- écaillas historic indicative past
- écailla historic indicative past
- écaillâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce écailler?
- /e.ka.je/
- /e.kɑ.je/
- \e.kɑ.je\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to écailler
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is écailler in French?
écailler appears about once in every 10 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).