Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🦟 An insect repellent 🌾 A tropical grass
citronella

citronella

1 4.7
An oil from tropical grass with a lemon smell used in candles and sprays to repel insects
  • noun
  • /ˌsɪtrəˈnɛlə/
: aceite de citronela
  • Everyone was coated with an inch and a half of something called Citronella, reportedly a mosquito repellant.
  • citronella oil
  • citronella candle
  • citronella spray

Examples

  • At dusk, he lit torches and citronella candles to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

  • On Saturday night, as junior class prez Mike McCauly (preppiest dresser this side of the Adirondacks) pulled into our driveway, I dabbed a little citronella oil on my wrists.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • - Citronella oil.

    Band of the Hand (1986)

  • I use a citronella balm for biting bugs.

    Blog text (10)

  • "It smells like citronella.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • These "fight kits" might include Kevlar gloves, slip leads, citronella spray, and more.

    Blog text (13)

  • And maybe also if she could smell like a citronella candle on A midsummer's evening and have some freckles, but not too many like that dry partner.

  • If you expect the dinner party to last beyond dusk, set out a border of citronella to repel insects.

  • Everyone was coated with an inch and a half of something called citronella, reportedly a mosquito repellant.

Surface Forms

citronella singular
citronellas plural

Morphology

citronella = citron (semi-transparent) = citron + ella

The oil's name is derived from 'citron' with the diminutive/derivational element '-ella'; the relation to a lemon-like scent is recoverable but the formation is a borrowed lexical item rather than a productive English derivation.

Etymology

The name citronella for the oil also comes from citron ('lemon') and -ella, meaning 'little lemon', because the oil smells lemony. That lemon scent is why citronella oil is used in perfumes and to repel insects.