desiccated

[ des-i-key-tid ]

adjective

1. dehydrated or powdered:

   desiccated coconut.

desiccated

/ ˈdɛsɪˌkeɪtɪd /

adjective

1. dehydrated and powdered

   desiccated coconut

2. lacking in spirit or animation

Other Words From

• un·desic·cated adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of desiccated¹

First recorded in 1670–80; desiccate + -ed ²

Example Sentences

All of it, the fear, the fury, the exhaustion, the endless mundanity, the necessity of swallowing my own emotions and desires as best I could to care for my children, left me feeling like a husk, feather-light and desiccated.

From Time

With thousands of years of pressure, plus dehydrating salt in the soil, their feces turned into non-smelly, desiccated samples with biomolecules still intact.

From Popular-Science

You’ve experienced desiccated soil if water has ever pooled around the base of your houseplants instead of soaking down to its roots.

From Popular-Science

The margins of survival in this desiccated land must be as thin as knives.

From Outside Online

The Mastcam-Z will take in panoramic vistas that will help researchers get oriented, so they can tell if they’re looking at stones in a dried-up stream, a long-defunct volcanic vent, or a desiccated river delta.

From Popular-Science

There were, though, other loves that belied the appearance of a desiccated, workaholic spinster.

From The Daily Beast

The ash beneath the stones where the eggs were found was only slightly moist; one clump of eggs was partially desiccated.

From Project Gutenberg

The road and the buildings look dry and desiccated, the harbour rather weary and end of the world.

From Project Gutenberg

Heaps of the books that have been written about the Bible are desiccated to the last grain of their dust.

From Project Gutenberg

The Seine no longer rolls its waves under Harfleur; and the desiccated harbor is now seen as a verdant meadow.

From Project Gutenberg

Frequently the child will scratch them off with the finger nails before they are entirely desiccated.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• arid
• bare
• barren
• dehydrated
• dusty
• parched
• stale
• torrid