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Glite Dictionary
to melanize

to melanize

9.0
To become dark when a living thing makes melanin
  • verb
  • /ˈmɛləˌnaɪz/
  • Specialized
: melanizar
  • After spending time in the sun, her skin began to melanize, giving her a beautiful tan.

Examples

  • Within a few hours, the invader becomes enclosed in a hardened capsule of melanized cells, which seals it off from the rest of the interior of the host.

    Academic text (2003)

  • As the fruit ripened, it started to melanize, turning from green to a rich, dark hue.

  • The artist chose to melanize the sculpture's surface to create a striking contrast with the lighter colors nearby.

Synonyms

to darken
vsto melanize
38 3.3

Make or become less bright, for example a room

is limited to pigment production in living tissue rather than mood or light
to blacken
vsto melanize
16 3.4

To make something dark or to become dark, for example walls after a fire

happens specifically by adding natural pigment within living organisms
to black
vsto melanize
16 2.1

To make or become dark in color

occurs through formation of melanin in living tissue

Antonyms

to decolorize
  • US
1 7.0

To take the color out of something like fabric or a photograph

How Dark

to blacken
16 3.4
to melanize
  • Specialized
9.0
to darken
38 3.3
to tint
6 3.6

Surface Forms

melanize infinitive
melanized past
melanized past participle
melanizing present participle
melanizes third person singular

Morphology

melanize = melanin (transparent) = melan + ize

Formed by the combining form 'melan-' (from the pigment melanin) plus the productive verb-forming suffix '-ize', so the verb meaning 'to make or become dark' follows directly.

Etymology

Melanize comes from the root melan-, which means 'black' and is the same root in melanin, the dark substance that gives color to skin and other tissues. So, to melanize is to 'become black' or 'make black' by forming or adding that substance.