Definition of "etiolate" []

• Botany To cause (a plant) to develop without chlorophyll by preventing exposure to sunlight. (verb-transitive)
• To cause to appear pale and sickly: a face that was etiolated from years in prison. (verb-transitive)
• To make weak by stunting the growth or development of. (verb-transitive)
• Botany To become blanched or whitened, as when grown without sunlight. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Bet "etiolate" would stump all but the most zanily creative among us."
• "Fourth, the irrefutable theory of irreducible complexity of Michael Behe will etiolate."
• "If the nut is planted deep this causes much suckering and a tendency to etiolate the buds so they will stand water."