Etiolate

Pronunciation

• enPR: ēʹtÄ“-É™-lāt', IPA: /ˈiːtiÉ™leɪt/
• Hyphenation: eti + o + late

Origin

French étioler, from Norman French étieuler, ultimately from Old French estuble ("stubble"), from Latin stupla, from stipula ("straw, stubble") (English stubble).

Full definition of etiolate

Verb

1. To make pale through lack of light, especially of a plant.
2. To make pale and sickly-looking.
• 1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers, She was a very lovely woman in her late thirties, in a silk dress of screaming scarlet that would have etiolated a white woman to bled veal.
• 1995, Martin Amis, The information, Gwynn and Richard were at the Westway Health and Fitness Centre, surrounded by thirty or forty etiolated drunks: playing snooker.
3. (intransitive) To become pale or blanched.

Related terms

• stubble

Adjective

1. etiolated