desiccate
/'desikeit/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Verb (transitive):
- To remove the moisture from something; to dry thoroughly: The primary meaning refers to the process of extracting all water or liquid content from an object, substance, or organism, often for preservation.
- To preserve by drying: This usage specifically applies to removing moisture to prevent decay and extend shelf life, commonly for food.
Verb (intransitive):
- To become thoroughly dried or dehydrated: Refers to the process of losing all moisture.
Adjective:
- Dried out; lacking vitality, spirit, or interest: Used figuratively to describe something that is emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually dry, lifeless, or barren.
Usage Examples
- Verb (transitive):
- The scientists will desiccate the plant samples for long-term study.
- This machine is used to desiccate the chemical compound, leaving a pure powder.
- Verb (intransitive):
- Without rain, the soil will quickly desiccate.
- Adjective:
- The critic panned the desiccate prose of the novel, calling it utterly without passion.
- He gave a desiccate, by-the-book lecture that bored the students.
Advanced Usage
- In a figurative or critical sense: Often used in academic, literary, or critical contexts to describe ideas, art, or language that is perceived as dry, uninspired, or devoid of emotional content.
- The debate was full of desiccate arguments, long on logic but short on humanity.
Variants and Related Words
- Desiccant (noun): A substance that induces or sustains a state of dryness (e.g., silica gel packets).
- Desiccation (noun): The process or result of becoming desiccated.
- The desiccation of the lake bed revealed ancient fossils.
- Desiccated (adjective): The more common participial adjective form.
- We ate desiccated coconut on the cake.
- His desiccated worldview offered no hope.
Synonyms
- Verb (to dry): Dehydrate, parch, dry out, exsiccate (technical).
- Adjective (lifeless): Arid, barren, sterile, uninspired, spiritless, vapid.
Antonyms
- Verb: Hydrate, moisten, dampen, saturate.
- Adjective: Lively, vibrant, spirited, lush, fertile.
Notes on Usage
- As a verb, "desiccate" is often used in scientific, technical, or culinary contexts.
- The adjective form "desiccate" is less common than the participial adjective "desiccated." Both forms carry the same figurative meaning of being lifeless or dull.
- The process of "desiccation" is a key concept in fields like biology (e.g., plant dormancy), food science, and archaeology.
Adjective
- lacking vitality or spirit; lifeless
- a technically perfect but arid performance of the sonata
- a desiccate romance
- a prissy and emotionless creature...settles into a mold of desiccated snobbery-C.J.Rolo
Verb
- lose water or moisture
- In the desert, you get dehydrated very quickly
- remove water from
- All this exercise and sweating has dehydrated me
- preserve by removing all water and liquids from
- carry dehydrated food on your camping trip