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Synonyms

bone-dry

American  
[bohn-drahy] / ˈboʊnˈdraɪ /

adjective

  1. very dry.

  2. very thirsty.

  3. Slang. dry.

  4. Ceramics. (of clay) thoroughly dried.


bone-dry British  

adjective

  1. informal

    1. completely dry

      a bone-dry well

    2. ( postpositive )

      the well was bone dry

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

See Examples For:

Cloaked in toxic haze that can burn years off a person's lifespan, volunteers have been digging ponds, canals and borewells through bone-dry peat in a desperate attempt to keep their hoses tapped.

From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026

Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent and the first two months of summer have been marked by successive heatwaves, scorching temperatures and bone-dry conditions.

From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 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

But a week later, powerful Santa Ana winds arrived, and coupled with single-digit humidity, they turned the landscape into bone-dry tinder ready to burn.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2025

Just north of us was the bone-dry Kabul River.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

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