Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Drying; tending to dry.
  • noun That which dries or evaporates; an application that dries up secretions.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Drying; tending to dry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective causing to desiccate, dry

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From desiccate + -ive

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Examples

  • At their return they did eat more soberly at supper than at other times, and meats more desiccative and extenuating; to the end that the intemperate moisture of the air, communicated to the body by a necessary confinitive, might by this means be corrected, and that they might not receive any prejudice for want of their ordinary bodily exercise.

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • At their return they did eat more soberly at supper than at other times, and meats more desiccative and extenuating; to the end that the intemperate moisture of the air, communicated to the body by a necessary confinitive, might by this means be corrected, and that they might not receive any prejudice for want of their ordinary bodily exercise.

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • Thirdly, we must apply to the bedsore a large plaster made of the desiccative red ointment and of Unguentum Comitissoe, equal parts, mixed together, to ease his pain and dry the ulcer; and he must have a little pillow of down, to keep all pressure off it.

    The Harvard Classics Volume 38 Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) Various

  • The composition of the powder should be such as to permit of its liberal use, thereby affording mechanical protection to the wound as well as exerting a desiccative effect.

    Lameness of the Horse Veterinary Practitioners' Series, No. 1 John Victor Lacroix

  • -- When frequently extinguished in water, it imparts a considerable desiccative power to it.

    Outlines of Greek and Roman Medicine James Sands Elliott

  • Thirdly, we must apply to the bedsore a large plaster made of the desiccative red ointment and of Unguentum Comitissœ, equal parts, mixed together, to ease his pain and dry the ulcer; and he must have a little pillow of down, to keep all pressure off it….

    The Journey to Flanders. 1569 1909

  • Sometimes easier words are changed into harder; as, burial, into sepulture or interment; dry [2], into desiccative; dryness, into siccity or aridity; fit, into paroxism; for the easiest word, whatever it be, can never be translated into one more easy. '

    Life Of Johnson Boswell, James, 1740-1795 1887

  • In fact, in most soils, there are counteracting influences which neutralize, more or less effectually, the desiccative action of roots, and in general it is as true as it was in Seneca's time, that "the shadiest grounds are the moistest [63]."

    Earth as Modified by Human Action, The~ Chapter 03 (historical) 1874

  • This and the next preceding case are of great importance both as to the action of the wood in maintaining springs, and particularly as tending to prove that evergreens do not exercise the desiccative influence ascribed to them in France.

    Earth as Modified by Human Action, The~ Chapter 03 (historical) 1874

  • In fact, in most soils, there are counteracting influences which neutralize, more or less effectually, the desiccative action of roots, and in general it is as true as it was in Seneca's time, that "the shadiest grounds are the moistest."

    The Earth as Modified by Human Action George P. Marsh 1841

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