Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

freeze-dry

American  
[freez-drahy] / ˈfrizˈdraɪ /

verb (used with object)

  • freeze-dries,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • freeze-dried,
    past participle,  past
  • freeze-drying
    present participle
  1. to subject to freeze-drying.


freeze-dry British  

verb

  1. (tr) to preserve (a substance) by rapid freezing and subsequently drying in a vacuum

"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

freeze-dry Scientific  
  1. To preserve a substance, such as food, by freezing it rapidly and placing it in a vacuum chamber, where the water frozen in the substance evaporates through sublimation.


Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future


Etymology

Origin of freeze-dry

First recorded in 1945–50


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:

It’s an interesting trick, because in order for us to do anything, you don’t want to repeat or freeze-dry anything; why bother if you’re not going to shake it up?

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026

ReadyWise uses a common process: They freeze-dry food, removing as much liquid and oxygen as possible and then package it in airtight containers.

From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2022

By the time Rupert’s apprenticeship was up, McCullough agreed to sell him his freeze-dry business.

From Slate ● Nov. 14, 2019

Instead, recent messages have included an advertisement for Harvest Right, which allows consumers to freeze-dry their dinner, preserving it in preparation for “whatever the future may bring.”

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 7, 2017

The folks over at Perpetual Pet can freeze-dry your beloved pet in a familiar pose.

From Time ● Oct. 11, 2014

Jeff is an ordinary-looking man with blow-dried hair, a trim mustache, and thick-lensed eyeglasses that make his eyes look constantly startled, like those of the pets he freeze-dries.

From Time Magazine Archive

The final meal before that climb consisted of freeze-dried crabmeat, tea and Jell-O.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026

Donna, who used to work in the military but now works in education, stores water, tinned food, freeze-dried food, tea, coffee, powdered milk and a first aid kit.

From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2026

One six-week clinical study highlighted in the review found that adults who consumed 25 grams of freeze-dried wild blueberry powder daily experienced increases in beneficial Bifidobacterium species.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 27, 2026

It’s finally freeze-dried to form ice sheets in a vacuum that are eventually broken to produce the final product.

From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2025

Before the lion could stop gagging, I shot in two more flavors of ice cream and a freeze-dried spaghetti dinner.

From "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan

That was over the summer, so he turned off the air conditioner, began freeze-drying bulk food purchases rather than storing them in his electric freezer, and started shutting off his lights more often.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2025

Bischoff’s specializes in a form of hybrid taxidermy, incorporating traditional techniques with the more new-fangled freeze-drying process.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2025

The microbes are also too delicate to survive the freeze-drying process that would make them easier to transport.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 15, 2023

Many of the Inca mummies discovered high on Andean mountaintops were preserved by freeze-drying, too.

From National Geographic ● Aug. 7, 2023

About £8m has already been spent preserving and restoring the timbers, which has included freeze-drying the wood at the Mary Rose museum in Portsmouth.

From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2023

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word


Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Just like flashcards, but way more fun

Don't take our word for it. Leave the boring studying behind and join VocabTrainer today. You'll learn even faster and never look back.

Take me to Vocabulary.com