How to Use desiccation in a Sentence

desiccation

noun
  • Some compared the rapid desiccation to the effect of turning off a giant faucet.
    — Hunter Clauss, Los Angeles Times, 21 Sep. 2024
  • The entire sea in that area shallowed, freshened, and then dried out, leaving deep desiccation cracks.
    — Howard Lee, Ars Technica, 8 Feb. 2023
  • Saturating the soil protects your plants from desiccation in the dry, hot winds.
    — Nan Sterman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Dec. 2025
  • The heat ruptures the cell walls in the leaves, causing desiccation and ultimately killing the weed.
    — Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 25 Apr. 2026
  • This bacterium laughs in the face of harsh chemicals, extreme cold, acids and desiccation.
    — Scott Travers, Forbes, 24 Mar. 2025
  • The desiccation left marinas that once teemed with sailboats marooned, surrounded by sand.
    — Evan Bush, NBC news, 7 Mar. 2026
  • What of the worlds that lie between slime and velvet, collapse and refusal, succulence and desiccation?
    — Ligaya Mishan Esther Choi, New York Times, 8 May 2023
  • Since then, many penguins have nested in the open, exposing themselves to heatstroke and their eggs and chicks to desiccation and predators.
    — Ryan Truscott, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Dec. 2022
  • If that happens, or if there’s a lack of insulating snow cover, winter desiccation can occur.
    — Luke Miller, Better Homes & Gardens, 30 Sep. 2024
  • All those areas of orange and red reveal dramatic desiccation.
    — Tom Yulsman, Discover Magazine, 31 Jan. 2025
  • While most of the desiccation resulted from the calamitous loss of Mars’s atmosphere, the planet has kept some of its water.
    — Charlie Wood, Popular Science, 12 Nov. 2020
  • Under these conditions, plants lose water quickly which increases the risk of desiccation of plant tissues.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 13 Apr. 2026
  • Whatever the recipe, the primary concern is to protect your phyllo from desiccation.
    — Charlotte Druckman, WSJ, 25 Aug. 2022
  • According to Miller, a few researchers believe some species of tardigrades might even be able to survive desiccation for up to a century.
    — Daisy Hernandez, Popular Mechanics, 7 Aug. 2019
  • In general, as the atmosphere warms with climate change, the air gets thirstier and thirstier, leading to further desiccation.
    — WIRED, 10 Aug. 2023
  • This drying out, referred to as desiccation, leads to winter injury or winter kill depending on the severity of damage.
    — Heather Zidack, Hartford Courant, 12 Apr. 2025
  • When brown sugar is exposed to air for too long, that moisture begins to evaporate, which results in hardening, clumping, and desiccation.
    — Mary Claire Britton, Southern Living, 27 Mar. 2025
  • The other common pathway is desiccation, which requires the body to remain exposed to the landscape for a period of time before burial.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 6 Jan. 2023
  • Many of the organisms dwelling near the surface were had adapted to UV radiation and desiccation.
    — Charlotte Hu, Discover Magazine, 26 Feb. 2018
  • In the experiment, the rotifers found safety from parasites after three weeks of desiccation or 30 metres of flight.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 29 Jan. 2010
  • Water deeply before freezing weather to prevent desiccation.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 11 Dec. 2025
  • Water deeply before freezing weather to prevent desiccation.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 10 Apr. 2026
  • Conventional oats tend to be sprayed for weed control upon planting and then again pre-harvest for desiccation, leaving herbicide residue in consumer products.
    — Errol Schweizer, Forbes, 31 Jan. 2022
  • The Turf Is Windburned In areas where there isn't much snow but the grass is exposed to cold, dry winds, the turf can suffer from winter desiccation.
    — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 19 Feb. 2026
  • One cluster of grapes has shriveled into raisins, and several other bunches show considerable desiccation.
    — Washington Post, 10 Feb. 2022
  • Scientists had previously hypothesized that several frog and toad species use foam to protect eggs from desiccation, but few studies had tested the idea.
    — Sandrine Ceurstemont, Scientific American, 9 Sep. 2021
  • Trees, especially conifers, in drier regions often need water during the winter to prevent desiccation.
    — oregonlive, 14 Aug. 2021
  • These plants tend to be more susceptible to desiccation and freezing during winter drawdowns leading to lower abundance the following warm season.
    — Debbie Archer Special To The Commercial, arkansasonline.com, 3 Dec. 2023
  • In the lab, scientists exposed the microbes to desiccation, UV exposure, cold and pH extremes.
    — Bill Andrews, Discover Magazine, 21 May 2014
  • Inadequate moisture can lead to desiccation of the leaves, possible dieback, and, in extreme situations, death, Bunting warns.
    — Madeline Buiano, Martha Stewart, 12 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'desiccation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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