Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of etiolate.
  • adjective Blanched because of sunlight deprivation or excessive exposure to sunlight.
  • adjective botany grown in the dark

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (especially of plants) developed without chlorophyll by being deprived of light

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Hardly the kind of etiolated artsy sort of thing you're complaining about.

    Pulitzer -- yawn -- prizes Michael Allen 2005

  • The pictures, dramatically arrayed on the walls according to their distance from Hiroshima's Ground Zero, show landscapes of burned-over rubble, concrete and steel buildings reduced to etiolated skeletons, and close-ups of flash burns and other interesting evidence of the awesome destructiveness of the bomb.

    Tragedy and Comedy of Life William Meyers 2011

  • It is a sign of the etiolated nature of the recovery that both options are currently "in play".

    Global recovery's weakness raises possibility of trade war Larry Elliott Economics editor 2010

  • If you want some quiet R & R — I know, I know, we are shopping, not on a retreat, but bear with me — the lavendar, orchid-strewn, light-flooded, minimalist "arena" where shoes from the likes of Balenciaga (stunning raspberry etiolated "Countess" pumps, £ 325) keep company with Jil Sander's lace-up gray brogue's (£ 410) — perfect for baggy or slouchy pants — offers what you might term a "moment" for retail reflection.

    Does the Shoe Fit? Finding the Perfect Flat Tina Gaudoin 2010

  • He is in complete control of his long, etiolated body—his small waist circled by a gold belt, fastening his ivory robe.

    This Blessed 'Richard II' Paul Levy 2011

  • The pictures, dramatically arrayed on the walls according to their distance from Hiroshima's Ground Zero, show landscapes of burned-over rubble, concrete and steel buildings reduced to etiolated skeletons, and close-ups of flash burns and other interesting evidence of the awesome destructiveness of the bomb.

    Tragedy and Comedy of Life William Meyers 2011

  • He is no longer just the arch mannerist, the etiolated epigone of Michelangelo, perverse and stylised in equal measure.

    Bronzino's Medici portraits – review James Hall 2010

  • There is, therefore, a risk that as the government shrinks the public sector there is only an etiolated private sector to take its place.

    Coalition will inflict cuts now and spend later to win a second term 2010

  • The wedding planner in me was relieved, but the Jackson in me felt, for the first time, a little sad about the etiolated state of the Jackson family horticulture.

    Shaking the Family Tree Buzzy Jackson 2010

  • The wedding planner in me was relieved, but the Jackson in me felt, for the first time, a little sad about the etiolated state of the Jackson family horticulture.

    Shaking the Family Tree Buzzy Jackson 2010

Comments

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  • ooh...an old friend...just wish I had thought of it first!

    June 15, 2007

  • I always want to mis-type or mis-say this word as "etoliated," as reesetee spotted! I s'pose if I spoke French I wouldn't have this problem.

    June 3, 2008

  • "And so it was not with the pleasure which otherwise I should doubtless have felt that I suddenly discerned at my feet, crouching among the rocks for protection against the heat, the marine goddesses for whom Elstir had lain in wait and whom he had surprised there, beneath a dark glaze as lovely as Leonardo would have painted, the marvellous shadows, sheltering furtively, nimble and silent, ready at the first glimmer of light to slip behind the stone, to hide in a cranny, and prompt, once the menacing ray had passed, to return to the rock or the seaweed over whose torpid slumbers they seemed to be keeping vigil, beneath the sun that crumbled the cliffs and the etiolated ocean, motionless lightfoot guardians darkening the water's surface with their viscous bodies and the attentive gaze of their deep blue eyes."

    -- Within a Budding Grove by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, Revised by D.J. Enright, p 689 of the Modern Library paperback edition

    June 3, 2008

  • "When Albertine came back to my room, she was wearing a black satin dress which had the effect of making her seem paler, of turning her into the pallid, intense Parisian woman, etiolated by lack of fresh air, by the atmosphere of crowds and perhaps by the practice of vice, whose eyes seemed the more uneasy because they were not brightened by any colour in her cheeks."

    -- The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, pp 127-128 of the Modern Library paperback edition

    January 5, 2010

  • "His high, thin voice floated back to her, and she saw his puppet shadow wave an etiolated hand."

    —Diana Gabaldon, Drums of Autumn (NY: Dell, 1997), 989

    January 20, 2010