Desiccate
adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A substance which has been desiccated, that is, had its moisture removed.
"The Cy dyes are shipped as a desiccate in sealed packs."
- 1 To remove moisture from; to dry; (sometimes) to dry to an extreme degree. transitive
"[…] As in Bodies deſsiccate, by Heat, or Age; For in them, when the Natiue Spirit goeth forth, and the Moiſture with it, the Aire with time getteth into the Pores."
- 2 lose water or moisture wordnet
- 3 To preserve by drying. transitive
"The nuts are then passed into a double disc machine, and this travelling at a speed of 3,000 revolutions per minute desiccates the coconut."
- 4 remove water from wordnet
- 5 To become dry; to dry up. intransitive, rare
"Lately, in France, they stopped the boiling process in the preparation of brown sugar a few degrees before the point of crystallization, which is 243°, or 244°; and then spreading their syrup over their copper pans, placed round a stove or bake house, leave the syrup to desiccate slowly, and to crystallize in what they call the natural way; […]"
Show 1 more definition
- 6 preserve by removing all water and liquids from wordnet
- 1 Having had moisture removed; dehydrated, desiccated.
"It [the byssus fungus] is not only capable of propagation by the most minute fragments, however rudely detached, but it also retains the principle of revivification for years together when in a desiccate state."
- 1 lacking vitality or spirit; lifeless wordnet
Example
More examples"[…] As in Bodies deſsiccate, by Heat, or Age; For in them, when the Natiue Spirit goeth forth, and the Moiſture with it, the Aire with time getteth into the Pores."
Etymology
From Latin dēsiccō (“to dry completely, dry up”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), from dē- (“completely, to exhaustion”, a prefix) + siccō (“to dry; to drain, exhaust”), from siccus (“dry”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix). By surface analysis, de- + siccate.
From Latin dēsiccātus (“dried up”), the perfect passive participle of dēsiccō: see above. Equivalent to Latin dēsiccō + -ate (adjective-forming suffix).
From the substantivation of the above adjective. Equivalent to Latin dēsiccō + -ate (noun-forming suffix).
Related phrases
More for "desiccate"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.