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.
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
It’s dry but not bone-dry, a wine to please a wide range of palates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025
Broccoli growers are particularly struggling with a lack of water and bone-dry soils, with yields cut by more than 50%, quality affected and shoppers warned to expect smaller vegetables on the shelves.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2025
This poses risks for California as it enters peak wildfire season, where the mix of bone-dry vegetation and ferocious winds can — and often does — spell disaster.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2025
The Kabul River, without its yearly spring floods, had turned bone-dry.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
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.
