Etiolated

/ˈiː.tɪ.ə(ʊ).leɪ.tɪd/ · adjective

Meaning

(chiefly botany, horticulture) Of a plant or part of a plant: pale and weak because of sunlight deprivation or excessive exposure to sunlight..

Definitions by Sense

1. (chiefly botany, horticulture) Of a plant or part of a plant: pale and weak because of sunlight deprivation or excessive exposure to sunlight.
2. (horticulture) Of a plant: intentionally grown in the dark.
3. (by extension) Of an animal or person: having an ashen or pale appearance; also, haggard or thin; physically weak.
4. (figurative) Lacking in vigour; anemic, feeble.
5. simple past and past participle of etiolate

Example Sentences

[T]he external leaves which enjoy the light are perfectly green, while those within, naturally or artificially covered up and involved in darkness, are blanched or etiolated; they are thereby rendered white, soft, delicate, and tender, and lose the taste and flavour of the native plant in its green state, or retain these very slightly.

If there is too great an accumulation of oxygen, as when a plant is kept in a dark place, then it will grow towards the nearest ray of light, which if it does not reach, it will remain white, or etiolated, and sickly.

They had been so long accustomed to nestle in their old dwellings sheltered in the narrow closes, "Piled deep and massy, close and high," that they seemed to regard the exposure to open streets and broad thoroughfares pretty much as some etiolated hot-house exotic might be supposed to reflect on its being turned out to the open garden.

In a report of 1901, the "triple response" of etiolated pea seedlings (growth inhibition, thickening of the subapical region, horizontal nutation) was observed to occur in the presence of illuminating gas and ethylene was identified as the inducing agent.

Seedlings are elongated and have closed cotyledons in the dark (aetiolated) while the hypocotyls are short and the cotyledons are open in the light (de-aetiolated).

Any visitor to New York over the past few years will have witnessed this curious new breed of pencil-thin tower. Poking up above the Manhattan skyline like etiolated beanpoles, they seem to defy the laws of both gravity and commercial sense. They stand like naked elevator shafts awaiting their floors, raw extrusions of capital piled up until it hits the clouds.

It is a fact well known to gardeners, that plants, when blanched, lose many of their active properties; and dandelion thus prepared, is frequently eaten on the continent in salads; [...] The French eat the young roots, and the etiolated leaves, with thin slices of bread and butter; [...]

When deprived of light, says Dr. Irvine, all plants nearly agree in the qualities of their juices. The most pungent vegetables then grow insipid; the highest flavoured, inodorous; and those of the most variegated colours are of a uniform whiteness. [...] The results of analysis perfectly accord with these observations; for etiolated plants are found to yield more saccharine matter, carbonic acid and water, and less inflammable matter than those which are green.

Synonyms for etiolated

Antonyms for etiolated

Related Words

Word Forms

• more etiolated
• most etiolated
• aetiolated

Usage Notes

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