Definition of "desiccate" [des•ic•cate]

• To dry out thoroughly. (verb-transitive)
• To preserve (foods) by removing the moisture. See Synonyms at dry. (verb-transitive)
• To make dry, dull, or lifeless. (verb-transitive)
• To become dry; dry out. (verb-intransitive)
• Lacking spirit or animation; arid: "There was only the sun-bruised and desiccate feeling in his mind” ( J.R. Salamanca). (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But maybe don't ask too much further because it's possible that before 'freezer perpetuity', the deceased cats might have been laid out on the hood of cars on front lawn, you know, to kind of desiccate before being burying?"
• "Specifically, that means a time when liquid water appears to have run freely around the planet, and when Mars had a magnetic field surrounding it that enabled a much thicker atmosphere to act as a shield against the ravages of the solar wind and the ultraviolet radiation that now desiccate the surface."
• "Windy conditions can also desiccate so erect a windbreak until they are established."