dehydration

/dihaɪˈdreɪʃɪn/

/dihaɪˈdreɪʃən/

Dehydration is what happens when something has water removed from it. Dehydration makes people extremely thirsty, and it can make plants grow droopy and brown.

During dehydration, moisture is lost without being replaced. In humans, dehydration can happen during strenuous exercise or in extreme heat — or simply when someone doesn't drink enough water for a certain length of time. A grape becomes a raisin through dehydration, shriveling and drying as moisture is removed. Dehydration and dehydrate, first used only by scientists, have a Greek root, hydro, "water."

Definitions of dehydration

1. noun

   the process of extracting moisture
   synonyms: desiccation, drying up, evaporation

   types:

   freeze-drying, lyophilisation, lyophilization

   a method of drying food or blood plasma or pharmaceuticals or tissue without destroying their physical structure; material is frozen and then warmed in a vacuum so that the ice sublimes

   inspissation

   the process of thickening by dehydration

   type of:

   extraction

   the process of obtaining something from a mixture or compound by chemical or physical or mechanical means
2. noun

   dryness resulting from the removal of water
   synonyms: desiccation

   type of:

   dryness, waterlessness, xerotes

   the condition of not containing or being covered by a liquid (especially water)
3. noun

   depletion of bodily fluids
   type of:

   thirst, thirstiness

   a physiological need to drink