exsiccation

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin exsiccatio, exsiccationis, from Latin exsicco: compare French exsiccation.

Noun

exsiccation (countable and uncountable, plural exsiccations)

1. The act of operation of drying; evaporation or expulsion of moisture.
   • 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, London: Edward Dod OCLC 216753971:

     That which is concreted by exsiccation or expression of humidity, will be resolved by humectification, as earth, dirt and clay.

   • 1802, William Paley, Natural Theology, section XIX:

     This property is […] more specific than that of hardening in the air; which may be reckoned a kind of exsiccation, like the drying of clay into bricks.

Related terms

• exsiccate
• desiccation

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “exsiccation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)