bone dry
5
3.2
- adjective
:
completamente seco
- As of today, they are bone dry.
- my mouth felt bone dry
- bone-dry deserts
- hobby-garden soil is bone dry
Even 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.
-
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.
-
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
791
1.0
Not wet or without any liquid
8
2.8
Completely dry because it has no water left
1
3.4
Completely dry with no moisture
1
1.0
Something that is no longer wet because its water has gone away
Completely dried so it has no water left
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'.