onion yellow dwarf
- noun
- Specialized
- Farmers found that onion yellow dwarf was reducing their crop yields significantly this season.
Examples
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Research is ongoing to develop onion varieties resistant to onion yellow dwarf.
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Certain methods can help protect onions from contracting onion yellow dwarf.
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The onion yellow dwarf disease affected my entire crop this year.
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Farmers are concerned about onion yellow dwarfs in their fields.
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Farmers found that onion yellow dwarf was reducing their crop yields significantly this season.
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Research is ongoing to develop onion varieties resistant to onion yellow dwarf.
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Certain methods can help protect onions from contracting onion yellow dwarf.
Synonyms
1
8.7
A plant virus that makes leaves turn yellow and plants stay small
A virus that makes onion plants grow poorly and their leaves turn yellow
How Affected
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is compositionally built from its parts: an issue affecting onions that causes yellowing and stunted (dwarf) growth. This is a common descriptive pattern for plant diseases (e.g. 'barley yellow dwarf'), so a B1 learner who knows 'onion', 'yellow' and 'dwarf' can reasonably infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Onion yellow dwarf is a name that describes what the disease does: a virus makes the onion leaves turn yellow and makes the plant stay small, and dwarf is a word that means 'very small'. So the name refers to a disease that causes yellowing and stunted growth in onion plants.