How to Use desiccation in a Sentence

desiccation

noun
  • Some compared the rapid desiccation to the effect of turning off a giant faucet.
    Hunter Clauss, Los Angeles Times, 21 Sep. 2024
  • The entire sea in that area shallowed, freshened, and then dried out, leaving deep desiccation cracks.
    Howard Lee, Ars Technica, 8 Feb. 2023
  • While most of the desiccation resulted from the calamitous loss of Mars’s atmosphere, the planet has kept some of its water.
    Charlie Wood, Popular Science, 12 Nov. 2020
  • Since then, many penguins have nested in the open, exposing themselves to heatstroke and their eggs and chicks to desiccation and predators.
    Ryan Truscott, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Dec. 2022
  • What of the worlds that lie between slime and velvet, collapse and refusal, succulence and desiccation?
    Ligaya Mishan Esther Choi, New York Times, 8 May 2023
  • Many of the organisms dwelling near the surface were had adapted to UV radiation and desiccation.
    Charlotte Hu, Discover Magazine, 26 Feb. 2018
  • According to Miller, a few researchers believe some species of tardigrades might even be able to survive desiccation for up to a century.
    William Herkewitz, Popular Mechanics, 21 Aug. 2020
  • In the lab, scientists exposed the microbes to desiccation, UV exposure, cold and pH extremes.
    Bill Andrews, Discover Magazine, 21 May 2014
  • The other common pathway is desiccation, which requires the body to remain exposed to the landscape for a period of time before burial.
    Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 6 Jan. 2023
  • In general, as the atmosphere warms with climate change, the air gets thirstier and thirstier, leading to further desiccation.
    WIRED, 10 Aug. 2023
  • In the experiment, the rotifers found safety from parasites after three weeks of desiccation or 30 metres of flight.
    Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 29 Jan. 2010
  • Perhaps the Chinchorro concluded that the dead were supposed to linger, that desiccation meant something important, that the preservation of bodies would mollify the souls of the dead.
    Maggie Shipstead Anthony Cotsifas, New York Times, 10 May 2023
  • Whatever the recipe, the primary concern is to protect your phyllo from desiccation.
    Charlotte Druckman, WSJ, 25 Aug. 2022
  • If that happens, or if there’s a lack of insulating snow cover, winter desiccation can occur.
    Luke Miller, Better Homes & Gardens, 30 Sep. 2024
  • Such desiccation may have occurred in other remains in Siberia’s vast permafrost meat locker, and perhaps in nonfrozen remains such as Egyptian mummies.
    Richard Stone, science.org, 11 July 2024
  • Conventional oats tend to be sprayed for weed control upon planting and then again pre-harvest for desiccation, leaving herbicide residue in consumer products.
    Errol Schweizer, Forbes, 31 Jan. 2022
  • These plants tend to be more susceptible to desiccation and freezing during winter drawdowns leading to lower abundance the following warm season.
    Debbie Archer Special To The Commercial, arkansasonline.com, 3 Dec. 2023
  • Scientists had previously hypothesized that several frog and toad species use foam to protect eggs from desiccation, but few studies had tested the idea.
    Sandrine Ceurstemont, Scientific American, 9 Sep. 2021
  • The enduring dry conditions have left woods and grasslands at near-historic levels of desiccation, a concern for fire officials still waiting for seasonal rainfalls to put an end to wildfire season.
    Dominic Fracassa, SFChronicle.com, 11 Dec. 2020
  • Most people know silica as the mysterious contents of desiccation packets found in vitamin bottles, high-end leather purses, clothing, and other items.
    Annalisa Merelli, STAT, 16 Apr. 2024
  • But at that time, the gland only made a fatty acid solvent similar to the hydrocarbons that almost all insects make in their cuticles to prevent desiccation and to communicate chemically.
    Viviane Callier, Scientific American, 27 Sep. 2023
  • Several other factors, including the decomposition process, the rate of desiccation, or drying out, and the compressive force of the wrappings, could all affect a mummy’s facial expression.
    Katie Hunt, CNN, 2 Aug. 2024
  • Trees, especially conifers, in drier regions often need water during the winter to prevent desiccation.
    oregonlive, 14 Aug. 2021
  • The rain brought by Hilary was a sharp departure from weather patterns in California, where most precipitation falls in winter and where summers often bring extreme desiccation.
    Thomas Fuller, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2023
  • Boothby says that tardigrade cells’ ability to survive desiccation could be the key to stabilizing vaccines and pharmaceuticals so that they can be stored at room temperature, instead of relying on fridges and freezers.
    Kate Golembiewski, Discover Magazine, 8 June 2023
  • One cluster of grapes has shriveled into raisins, and several other bunches show considerable desiccation.
    Washington Post, 10 Feb. 2022
  • Evergreen shrubs like mahonia benefit from protection against strong winter winds to avoid desiccation, particularly in the colder regions of its range.
    Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 19 Jan. 2025
  • Most animals mummified by the ancient Egyptians underwent evisceration (the removal of their organs) and desiccation (drying out of the bodily fluids) after death.
    Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 May 2022
  • Overwintering Like other broadleaf evergreens, Golden Oakland® Hollies are susceptible to desiccation during the dry winter months and can be damaged by extreme cold.
    Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 11 Dec. 2024
  • Egg desiccation was treated as a threshold trait, but the possibility of phenotypic plasticity or evolution of the threshold was not considered.
    Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 29 Apr. 2010

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'desiccation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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