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; -ate ¹

Example Sentences

However, when succulents become etiolated, they can only grow thicker new growth once sunlight is corrected.

From Seattle Times

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

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

From The Guardian

You take in your late granny’s hideous yucca plant, a mostly etiolated stump with a couple of yellow ribbon-like leaves.

From The New Yorker

Seeing their drawings of etiolated figures – half plant, half human, all sinews and tendrils – makes you realise why they were nicknamed the “spook school”.

From The Guardian