Definition of "uncoat"

uncoat

verb
third-person singular simple present uncoats, present participle uncoating, simple past and past participle uncoated
1. (virology, intransitive) (of the capsid shell) to dissociate from the viral core in the host cell cytoplasm
2. (virology, transitive) To remove the viral capsid of a virus, leading to the release of the viral genomic nucleic acid.