Meanings
present singular third person etiolates · participle present etiolating · participle past etiolated · past etiolated
- To make pale and sickly-looking.
Gwynn and Richard were at the Westway Health and Fitness Centre, surrounded by thirty or forty etiolated drunks: playing snooker.
1995, Martin Amis, The information1 more example
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.
1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers - intransitiveTo become pale or blanched.
comparative more etiolate · superlative most etiolate
Synonyms & antonyms
adjective(especially of plants) developed without chlorophyll by being deprived of light
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinstupla
- Old Frenchestuble“stubble”
- Frenchétieuler
- Frenchétioler
- Englishetiolate
French étioler, from Norman French étieuler, ultimately from Old French estuble (“stubble”), from Latin stupla, from stipula (“straw, stubble”) (English stubble).
More words from French, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
German etiolieren, vergeilen
- etiolierento make pale through lack of light
- vergeilento make pale through lack of light
Russian этиолировать, обесцвечивать расте́ния
- этиолировать (etiolirovatʹ)to make pale through lack of light
- обесцвечивать расте́ния (obescvečivatʹ rasténija)to make pale through lack of light
- бледне́ть (blednétʹ)to make a person pale and sickly-looking
- станови́ться бледным (stanovítʹsja blednym)to make a person pale and sickly-looking
Cite this entry
etiolate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/etiolate
“etiolate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/etiolate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “etiolate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/etiolate.
Source: etiolate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.