dehydrate, v. Chem.
(diːˈhaɪdreɪt)
[f. de- II. 2 + Gr. ὕδωρ, in comb. ὑδρ- water + -ate3.]
1. a. trans. To deprive of water, or of the elements which compose water in a chemical combination.
| 1876 Foster Phys. ii. v. (1879) 388 The sugar becoming..dehydrated into starch. 1880 E. Cleminshaw Wurtz's Atom. Th. 279 When phosphoric acid is dehydrated. 1886 Jrnl. Microsc. Soc. Ser. ii. VI. 350 These are then dehydrated in 90–96 per cent. alcohol. |
b. spec. To remove the water from (foods), so as to preserve them and reduce their bulk.
| 1921 C. V. Ekroth in A. Rogers Industr. Chem. (ed. 3) li. 1158 One of the most important features of the food conservation movement since the outbreak of the war has been the practice of dehydrating fruits and vegetables. 1943 Daily Tel. 23 Oct. 4 As early as 1938 British food scientists began to study methods of dehydrating vegetables, meat and eggs and of storing them in that form. |
c. fig. To render ‘dry’, lifeless, uninteresting, etc.
| 1957 London Mag. Nov. 73 They dehydrate Joyce, destroying both the devil and the child in him. |
2. intr. To lose water as a constituent.
| 1886 Jrnl. Microsc. Soc. Ser. ii. VI. 350 The celloidin layers are slow in dehydrating. |
Hence deˈhydrated ppl. a.; deˈhydrater, an agent that dehydrates; deˈhydrating ppl. a. and vbl. n.; dehyˈdration, the removal of water, or of its constituents, in a chemical combination.
| 1854 J. Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc. Chem. 453 The result of difference between hydration and dehydration. 1876 Harley Mat. Med. 159 The same complete dehydration is effected more slowly by mere exposure to the air. 1884 Muir & Wilson Thermal Chem. iv. §175. 149 Those dehydrated salts which dissolve in water with evolution of heat. 1884 Pharm. Soc. Prospectus 6 Action of..dehydrating agents upon them. 1921 C. V. Ekroth in A. Rogers Industr. Chem. (ed. 3) li. 1156 Dehydrated or dried food has had practically all of its moisture removed. Ibid. 1170 The dehydration of cow's milk, partial or complete, produces, in the former case, the condensed and evaporated milk so familiar to us. 1943 Harper's July 166 Life shares with its elder brother, Time,..a language which..revels in coining nifty, dehydrated words. 1944 Evening Standard 5 Dec. 6/4 It seems strange that words like flak..should escape censure by the austere..while such bitter eloquence is directed against dehydrated, deprescribed, hospitalisation [etc.]. 1954 Koestler Invis. Writing ii. 26 Language, and with it thought, underwent a process of dehydration. 1955 N.Y. Times 6 Mar. i. 49/4 The Army is putting greater emphasis on dehydrated foods to meet the needs of swiftly moving, widely dispersed fighting units. 1958 Times 6 Feb. 11/2 A series of rather dehydrated arguments between a number of intellectual types. |