etiolation (n.)

  1. a pale and sickly appearance; his etiolation signaled years in prison'

  2. the act of weakening by stunting the growth or development of something; the etiolation of the critical tradition'

  3. (botany) the act of causing a plant to develop without chlorophyll by growing it without exposure to sunlight; the etiolation of celery'

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
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