defoliantn.
/dɪˈfəʊlɪənt/ A chemical used to cause defoliation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > killer of nature > [noun] > herbicide > defoliant
defoliant1943
agent1966
Agent Orange1966
1943 N.Y. Herald Tribune 7 Nov. 6 A cotton crop sprinkled with a specially prepared defoliant to make machine picking easier was harvested recently.
1956 Nature 3 Mar. 417/2 Research on the use of herbicides, arboricides and defoliants in East Africa.
1963 Guardian 1 May 8/5 The defoliants..are widely used by farmers.
1967 Punch 1 Mar. 302/2 The most powerful technological nation in the world has deployed its invention in massive weight; from 70,000-ton attack carriers, through flying headquarters equipped with computers, to defoliants for stripping the jungle of concealing vegetation.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
<
n.1943