dried

1. 1
   adjective

   Having lost its water or moisture after previously being wet, as a result of drying.

   She wiped the dried tears from the child's cheeks.

   Cracks spread across the dried riverbed during the long drought.

   Similardry, parched, desiccated, dehydrated

   Oppositewet, moist, damp

   Note

   What separates it from plain dry is a history: dried things were wet once. The word suits tears, a riverbed or mud on a boot, but not a desert, which was never wet to begin with. It also does not grade. Something is dried or it is not, so "more dried" sounds wrong, and the same holds for the food senses beside it.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of foods, cured and preserved by having the moisture removed.

   Like beef jerky, which keeps far longer than fresh meat because its moisture is gone.

   Sailors once survived long voyages on dried fish and hard biscuits.

   The recipe calls for a handful of dried herbs and a pinch of salt.

   Similardehydrated, desiccated, preserved, dry

   Oppositefresh

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of dry.

   The painter dried each layer before adding the next.

   After the flood, the carpets never fully dried.

   Note

   One spelling does both jobs, simple past and participle, with the y of dry turning to -ied. The verb works with or without an object: the paint dried overnight; she dried the dishes. Two narrower uses come along with it. An actor who dried forgot their lines mid-performance, a casual theater usage, and programmers say they dried their code when they stripped out repetition.

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