DEFOLIANT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does defoliant mean? 

• DEFOLIANT (noun)
  The noun DEFOLIANT has 1 sense:

1. a chemical that is sprayed on plants and causes their leaves to fall off

  Familiarity information: DEFOLIANT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEFOLIANT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A chemical that is sprayed on plants and causes their leaves to fall off

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("defoliant" is a kind of...):

chemical compound; compound ((chemistry) a substance formed by chemical union of two or more elements or ingredients in definite proportion by weight)

Derivation:

defoliate (strip the leaves or branches from)

 Context examples 

Code name for a synthetic defoliant developed for military use.

(Agent Orange, NCI Thesaurus)