- dry
- dry adj1 Dry, arid mean devoid of moisture.Dry may suggest freedom from noticeable moisture either as a characteristic or as a desirable state{
a dry climate
}{1dry clothing
}{dry land
}{dry provisions
}{dry floors
}or it may suggest deficiency of moisture or the lack of normal or necessary moisture{dry soil
}{a dry summer
}{dry seedy berries
}or, again, it may suggest exhaustion or dissipation of water or other liquid{a dry fountain pen
}{dry pond
}{dry well
}{dry bones
}Arid implies destitution or deprivation of moisture and therefore extreme rather than relative dryness. In its chief applications to regions or territory, it suggests waste or desert land{arid sections of the southwestern United States
}{arid plains
}{an arid condition of soil
}In extended use, as applied to such matters as subjects, books, or sermons, dry suggests the lack of qualities which compel interest or attention{the course is dry but useful
}{in the driest passages of her historical summaries these delightful descriptions come running to the rescue— Payne
}Arid, on the other hand, connotes absence of all qualities which mark the thing so qualified as worthwhile, fruitful, or significant{an arid treatise on poetry
}{the frank elucidation of such a principle . . . might imply only bleak and arid results— Holbrook Jackson
}As applied to persons, their manner, or their words and expressions, dry implies a loss of normal or often of youthful human warmth, freshness, responsiveness, or enthusiasm; arid, an absence of these qualities or an incapacity for them{his dry schoolmaster temperament, the hurdy-gurdy monotony of him— James
}{some arid matron made her rounds at dawn sniffing, peering, causing blue-nosed maids to scour— Woolf
}Specifically, dry often suggests the repression of feeling for the sake of outwardly appearing aloof or imperturbed{a dry comic style
}{comments which did not seem to be censures because uttered in a dry tone of voice
}Arid, on the other hand, often connotes a deadening of feeling, especially as shown by a loss of fervor or hope{if Shakespeare himself ever had that "dark period" ... it was at least no darkness like that bleak and arid despair which sometimes settles over modern spirits— Krutch
}Analogous words: barren, *bare, bald: dehydrated, desiccated, dried, parched, baked (see DRY vb): drained, depleted, exhausted, impoverished (see DEPLETE): sapped (see WEAKEN)Antonyms: wetContrasted words: damp, moist, humid, dank (see WET): *tender, sympathetic, warm, responsive: exuberant, lush, luxuriant, prodigal, *profuse2 *sour, acid, acidulous, tartAntonyms: sweet (wine)dry vb Dry, desiccate, dehydrate, bake, parch are comparable when meaning to treat or to affect so as to deprive of moisture.Dry is the comprehensive word and may be used whatever the process (as evaporation, absorption, or solidification) or method (as heating, draining, or aerating) by which the result is attained{clothes dried in the wind
}{dry up a ditch
}{dry dishes with a towel
}{dry bricks in a kiln
}Desiccate is narrower in its range of reference and implies a complete deprivation of moisture, especially of vital juices, and often therefore, in its common extended use, a withering or shriveling. It is applicable to animal and vegetable products preserved by thorough drying{desiccated fish
}or it may be applied to persons or to their attitudes, activities, or expression which have lost all their spiritual or emotional freshness or vitality{analysis is desiccating and takes the bloom off things— Babbitt
}{they were all . . . living on the edge of their nerves, a harsh, angular, desiccated existence— Brooks
}Dehydrate implies extraction or elimination of water; it is often preferred to desiccate, of which it is a close synonym, when the reference is to foods{dehydrate vegetables
}It is the usual word when the removal of water (or hydrogen and oxygen in the proportion to form water) is by chemical rather than physical means{dehydrated alums
}and in extended use suggests a removal of what strengthens, inspires, or makes meaningful or pleasing{touches nothing that he does not dehydrate— Economist
}Bake implies not only dehydrating by means of heat, but a hardening or caking of what is dried{sun- baked earth
}{bake bricks
}Parch stresses the damaging effect of drying by intense heat or drought; it is preferred to bake, therefore, when the restoration of the proper amount of water is necessary or highly desirable{a parched throat
}{record heat waves which have parched mid-America's usually productive plains— N. Y. Times Mag.
}Antonyms: moisten, wet
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
