dried
Americanverb
verb
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Something that's dried isn't wet anymore. Dried ink on a page can't be smudged. The dried tears on your cheek are nothing but salty patches, and dried concrete on the sidewalk is completely solid — you can't leave a handprint in it. Some things are deliberately dried, with all moisture removed from them. Dried apricots and sun dried tomatoes, for example, are dehydrated so they become dense, sweet, and chewy. Dried has a Germanic root, dreug, which means "dry."
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 late as the 1800s, most commodities were cultivated: Cinnamon bark was peeled and rolled into quills, opium juiced from poppies, and tea leaves dried out in the sun.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Inside there are tiny cauliflowers, brown and dried up.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Later, repeated heat waves and a period of drought dried out that vegetation, turning it into abundant fuel.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026
As a result, fallow fields are in a "deplorable state, and at the slightest spark, the blaze spreads like wildfire" due to vegetation dried out by the heat.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
The dried liquid turns brown as it heats up, becoming clearly visible.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
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.
