etiolate

American  

[ee-tee-uh-leyt] / ˈi ti əˌleɪt /

verb (used with object)

etiolated, etiolating

1. to cause (a plant) to whiten or grow pale by excluding light.

   to etiolate celery.

2. to cause to become weakened or sickly; drain of color or vigor.

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verb (used without object)

etiolated, etiolating

1. (of plants) to whiten or grow pale through lack of light.

etiolate British  

/ ˈiːtɪəʊˌleɪt /

verb

1. botany to whiten (a green plant) through lack of sunlight

2. to become or cause to become pale and weak, as from malnutrition

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Other Word Forms

• etiolation
  noun

Etymology

Origin of etiolate

First recorded in 1785–95; < French étioler “to make pale, etiolate (plants),” probably derivative of a Norman French dialect form of standard French éteule, Old French estoble, estuble stubble; see -ate ¹

Explanation

To etiolate is to make something, especially a plant, become pale and weak. A lack of sunshine in your back yard might etiolate the roses you planted there. You can use etiolate to describe what your uncle does to his house plants when he keeps his curtains closed for weeks — causing them to grow long, pale stems and tiny leaves from lack of sunlight. It's more common to find etiolate and the noun etiolation in science textbooks or botanists' studies. Etiolate comes from the French word étioler, "to blanch," and experts speculate that it may literally mean "to become like straw," from the French Norman étule, "a straw."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

etiolate etiolated

V. be white &c. adj. render white &c. adj.; whiten, bleach, blanch, etiolate, whitewash, silver.

From Roget's Thesaurus by Roget, Peter Mark

V. be white &c. adj.. render white &c. adj.; whiten, bleach, blanch, etiolate, whitewash, silver.

From Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Roget, Peter Mark

If the nut is planted deep this causes much suckering and a tendency to etiolate the buds so they will stand water.

From Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting Guelph, Ontario, September 3, 4, 5, 1947 by Northern Nut Growers Association

I can not believe that, to produce one roseate complexion, she must etiolate a thousand.

From The Book of Khalid by Rihani, Ameen Fares

A sadly etiolated Princess Margaret died at 71 in 2002.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2024

Succulent varieties that require more direct light will become etiolated and lose color without it.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 30, 2022

To me, though, “Romance in Marseille” reflects the 1930s discovery and celebration of outcasts, rogues and criminals, all of them regarded as more vital and passionate than the upright citizens of etiolated bourgeois society.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 5, 2020

Poking up above the Manhattan skyline like etiolated beanpoles, they seem to defy the laws of both gravity and commercial sense.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 5, 2019

Already, on the walk from the station, the May sunshine had made him feel dirty and etiolated, a creature of indoors, with the sooty dust of London in the pores of his skin.

From "1984" by George Orwell