bone dry
10
3.2
- adjective
- As of today, they are bone dry.
- my mouth felt bone dry
- bone-dry deserts
- hobby-garden soil is bone dry
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Watch on YouTubeEven small little seedlings like this, they can go bone dry and still perk right back up.
- Even small little seedlings like this, they can go bone dry and still perk right back up.
- Both of these pieces need to be bone dry and made out of the right materials.
- I would not recommend this if you're like skin bone dry fucking elephant ass dry Andreas.
Examples
-
Your shoes were bone dry when I came in.
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The river has gone bone dry during many months of the year, leaving animals like this giraffe to search in vain for a drop to drink.
Academic text (2011) -
Both of these pieces need to be bone dry and made out of the right materials.
-
I want you people to be aware that this structure is bone dry.
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Vegetation is looking good even though the streams and creeks are bone dry.
Blog text (16) -
Even small little seedlings like this, they can go bone dry and still perk right back up.
-
"Right now we're bone dry," says Delling, "so we're drawing water from a city hydrant."
Academic text (1997) -
I first descended to the bottom of the canyon in June 1988, and the riverbed was indeed bone dry.
Academic text (1992) -
Early Sumerians used irrigation channels, dams and reservoirs to redirect river water and farm large areas of previously bone dry land.
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The garden was completely bone dry after the long summer without rain.
Synonyms
885
1.0
Not wet or without any liquid
73
1.0
Something that is no longer wet because its water has gone away
12
2.8
Completely dry because it has no water left
6
7.2
Completely dried so it has no water left
4
3.4
Completely dry with no moisture
Antonyms
How Dry
Surface Forms
Morphology
bone + dry
The meaning 'completely dry' is partly derivable because bones are associated with being very dry, so 'bone' functions as a metaphorical intensifier of 'dry'. However, this is a lexicalized, metaphorical use rather than a literal compositional meaning, so a B1 learner might guess the sense but would not reliably predict it without prior exposure.
Etymology
Bone dry likely comes from the simple picture of a bare bone that has no water and feels very dry. So people began to say bone dry to mean 'completely dry'.