desiccating

verb

present participle of desiccate
1
as in undermining
to deprive of emotional or intellectual vitality that historian's dryasdust prose desiccates what is actually an exciting period in European history

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in drying
to make dry add a cup of desiccated coconut to the mix

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of desiccating In the Rocky Mountains, years of extreme heat and drought have baked the landscape, drying up streams that feed the Colorado River and desiccating pastures where cattle graze. — Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2026 Suddenly, pest populations are large enough to make a meaningful impact, and one too many afternoons of 100+ degree weather have begun desiccating leaves. — Anthony Reardon, Kansas City Star, 2 Aug. 2026 Improving safety in the field Key innovations for the new tissue include the ability to hold water at room temperature for months on end without desiccating or needing refridgeration. — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 25 July 2026 By desiccating vegetation, the drought has already fueled severe wildfires, with 116,000 hectares burned in Spain and 42,000 hectares burned in France, according to the WWA report. — Sanidhya Sharma, Scientific American, 24 July 2026 Another advantage of long and narrow leaves is their ability to withstand heavy rainfall and battering or desiccating winds. — Joshua Siskin, Oc Register, 4 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for desiccating
  1. undermining
  2. drying
  3. draining
  4. weakening
  5. exhausting
  6. dehydrating
  7. enervating
  8. deadening
Verb
  • At the time of the last catastrophe, a convulsive shift in media consumption began undermining the value of the legacy distribution scheme, which in turn led to grave uncertainties related to revenue sharing.
    — Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 6 Nov. 2026
  • More fundamentally, Vietnam showed that misadventures abroad could boomerang, weakening American democracy and societal cohesion and, ultimately, undermining the country’s international standing.
    — David Sacks, Foreign Affairs, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of undermining
Verb
  • Soothing ingredients like green tea, centella, panthenol and glycerin are good signs, while heavy fragrance and drying alcohols are worth avoiding if your scalp is sensitive.
    — Valeriya Chupinina, Vogue, 11 Nov. 2026
  • The contaminant was not introduced during manufacturing, but was present in the vegetables prior to drying.
    — Eva Flowe November 10, Charlotte Observer, 10 Nov. 2026
Definition of drying
Verb
  • Wembanyama scored 10 of San Antonio's first 12 points, powering down two dunks and draining all six free-throw attempts.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 5 Nov. 2026
  • These volatile compound intermediates shuttle and dissolve from the cathode, draining battery life.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of draining
Verb
  • Rather than weakening the material, these networks create electrical hotspots that enhance its antibacterial activity.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 12 Nov. 2026
  • The wrinkle here is that investor appetite for an Anthropic IPO appears to be weakening.
    — Alexa LoMonaco, CNBC, 9 Nov. 2026
Definition of weakening
Verb
  • This heats the air dramatically, expanding it and exhausting the hot gas at a much higher velocity than normal.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 1 Nov. 2026
  • So, get ready for mountain vistas and exhausting cycling days to take your breath away and questions about your life choices to swirl around in your head!
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of exhausting
Verb
  • And none of the many alternative remedies for treating lice – such as smothering them with mayonnaise or oil, dehydrating them with saline or hot air, or zapping them with an electronic comb – have proven to be effective.
    — Emily J. C. Wong, The Conversation, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Antihistamines have a general dehydrating effect that also reduces tear production.
    — Nancy LeBrun, Verywell Health, 24 Sep. 2026
Definition of dehydrating
Verb
  • Such flat, enervating filmmaking makes the whole endeavor a shockingly cynical affair.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Campbell, the North Carolina folk singer, describes an enervating process marked by back-and-forth exchanges and lots of waiting.
    — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 25 Mar. 2026
Definition of enervating
Verb
  • Inside the cabin, extensive additional sound deadening in the doors, trunk and wheel arches means phone calls and passenger conversations are entirely effortless at highway speeds.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Each presents a group portrait of a handful of disaffected British suburbanites—husbands who resent their deadening jobs, toddlers who whine and interrupt, and, above all, hassled wives subsumed by a crush of household obligations.
    — Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2026
Definition of deadening

Browse Nearby Words

desiccates
desiccating
desiderata
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Desiccating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desiccating. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

The Words of the Week - Nov. 13

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
woman sitting on floor holding book in front of her face on pink background
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz Needless to say, spoiler alert.
See All