adjective
Etymology
Origin of bone-dry
First recorded in 1815–25
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As the Eaton and Palisades fires roared across the Altadena area and the coastal Santa Monica Mountains in January 2025, the flames were fueled in part by accumulations of bone-dry chaparral, brush and other vegetation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
Allegra Goodman’s family saga coaxes, in Sam Sacks’s words, “excellent, bone-dry humor” out of the skirmishes and long-running battles among members of a loving, fractious clan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
“This Is Not About Us” mines excellent, bone-dry humor from the neuroses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
But, she said, the landscape will remain bone-dry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2025
Composed of heat-resistant plastic and chemically treated cork layers, and equipped with a desiccating unit to keep the air bone-dry, the insosuits could withstand the full glare of Mercury’s sun for twenty minutes.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
