desiccated

adjective

des·​ic·​cat·​ed ˈde-si-ˌkā-təd 

1

: dried up

a desiccated landscape

: preserved by drying

a cup of desiccated coconut

… all around were barrels of dried apples and apricots, shriveled and desiccated …

—Margaret Laurence

… when visitors come to the lab he likes to show them his collection of curiosities, which includes a desiccated octopus.

—Elizabeth Kolbert

2

: drained of emotional or intellectual vigor or vitality

Singer's utilitarianism is so dry and desiccated that it drains the drama from philosophy.

—George F. Will

Examples of desiccated in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As their devout, desiccated mother, Doris, Maura Tierney simply opts out of the household’s increasingly ugly dynamics. —Alison Willmore, Vulture, 10 May 2024

Some tracts are clear-cut, leaving vast swaths of bare ground, desiccated streams and marshes, and countless tree stumps. —Alexis Marie Adams, Scientific American, 19 Mar. 2024

The feral, desiccated monsters attack them in the woods, and then their maker throws herself onto a fire, right in front of Louis and Claudia. —Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 13 May 2024

After these scenes, which play out like a Rick Owens runway show at the 1936 Olympics, the desiccated landscapes and drab Fremen uniforms of the planet Arrakis look that much more vital by comparison. —Jacob Brogan, Washington Post, 7 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1670, in the meaning defined at sense 1