bone-dry

[ bohn-drahy ]

adjective

1. very dry.
2. very thirsty.
3. Slang. dry ( def 17 ).
4. Ceramics. (of clay) thoroughly dried. dry.

bone-dry

adjective

1. informal.
   1. completely dry

      a bone-dry well

   2. ( postpositive )

      the well was bone dry

Word History and Origins

Origin of bone-dry¹

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

That includes telling people to stay out for a week or two when the foliage is bone-dry and another hellish heat wave appears in the weather forecast.

From Los Angeles Times

The joke, of course, is that six decades after that episode aired, the prospect of a bone-dry city soaring to 110 degrees is no longer an imaginary horror.

From Los Angeles Times

In Mudzi district in northern Zimbabwe, a community and their livestock are gathered on a bone-dry riverbed.

From BBC

Those bone-dry grasses are fodder for explosive wildfire growth when paired with above-average temperatures and strong winds.

From Los Angeles Times

At the pole the cold air is even more stable than it is in the bone-dry Atacama Desert, he notes.

From Science Magazine

Related Words

• arid
• parched
• scorched
• sunbaked