a. [ad. L. ārid-us, f. ārē-re to be dry, parched with heat. Perh. directly from F. aride, 15th c. refashioning of OF. are, arre.]
1. Dry, without moisture, parched, withered.
† a. of substances: Dry; anhydrous. Obs.
1652. L. S., People’s Lbty., ix. 17. Aride and liquide fruicts.
1742. Shenstone, Schoolmistr., 106. Lavender … in arid bundles bound.
1803. Phil. Trans., XCIII. 14. Arid white salt … Arid, may be appropriated to express the state of being devoid of combined water.
† b. Med. of the skin. Obs.
1704. Swift, Batt. Bks. (1711), 248. Her Body grew white and arid.
1727. Pope, etc., Martin. Scriblerus, xii. (1741), Introd. 7 (J.). My complexion is become adust, and my body arid.
c. of the ground or climate. Hence, barren, bare.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Arid, dry, barren, withered, unfruitful.
1730. Thomson, Autumn, 147. Without him summer were an arid waste.
1849. Dickens, Barn. Rudge (1866), I. lviii. 265. The dry, arid look of the dusty square.
1872. Baker, Nile Tribut., Pref. 7. Arid sands and burning deserts.
2. fig. Dry, uninteresting, barren, jejune.
1827–39. De Quincey, Murder, Wks. IV. 26. An old arid and adust metaphysician.
1846. Lytton, Lucretia (1853), 167. Ardworth grappled with his arid studies.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, lxxi. Arid of all good.
