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Dry vs Absorbent - What's the difference?

dry | absorbent |

As an acronym dry

is (computing).

As an adjective absorbent is

having the ability or tendency to absorb; able to soak up liquid easily; absorptive .

As a noun absorbent is

anything which absorbs .

dry

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) drye, drie, dri, drige, dryge, . See also (l), (l), (l).

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Free from liquid or moisture.
  • * Addison
    • The weather, we agreed, was too dry for the season.
  • * Prescott
    • Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly.
  • (chemistry) Free of water in any state; anhydrous.
  • Thirsty; needing drink.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • Give the dry fool drink.
  • (of an alcoholic beverage) Lacking sugar or low in sugar; not sweet.
  • Maintaining temperance; void or abstinent from alcoholic beverages.
  • (of a person or joke) Subtly humorous, yet without mirth.
  • * (Washington Irving)
    • He was rather a dry , shrewd kind of body.
  • (of a scientist or his laboratory) Not working with chemical or biological matter, but, rather, doing computations.
  • (masonry) Built without mortar; dry-stone.
  • *
  • (of animals) Not giving milk.
  • Lacking interest or amusement; barren; unembellished.
  • * (Alexander Pope)
    • These epistles will become less dry , more susceptible of ornament.
  • (fine arts) Exhibiting a sharp, frigid preciseness of execution, or lacking delicate contours and soft transitions of colour.
    • Synonyms
    * (free from liquid or moisture) arid, parched
    Antonyms
    * (free from liquid or moisture) wet * (abstinent from alcohol) wet * wet
    Derived terms
    * bone dry * dry as a bone * dry as a dead dingo’s donger * dry cough * dry hole * dry ice * drily * dry run * dryly * dryness * dry spell * drywall * dry weight * like watching paint dry

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Verb

  • To lose moisture.
    • The clothes dried on the line.
  • To remove moisture from.
    • Devin dried her eyes with a handkerchief.
  • (ambitransitive, figurative) To cease or cause to cease.
    • Their sources of income dried up.
    The stream of chatter dried up.
    Derived terms
    * drier * dryer * dry out * dry up * nondrying
    See also
    * desiccant * desiccate * desiccation

    absorbent

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having the ability or tendency to absorb; able to soak up liquid easily; absorptive.
    • Those paper towels were amazingly absorbent . That was quite a spill.

    Derived terms

    * absorbent ground * nonabsorbent

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anything which absorbs.
  • * 1839 , , 1972, Forgotten Books, page 225,
    • In the Southern Ocean the winter is not so excessively cold, but the summer is far less hot, for the clouded sky seldom allows the sun to warm the ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat: and hence the mean temperature of the year is low.
  • (physiology, pluralized, now, rare) The vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, as the lymphatics in animals, the extremities of the roots in plants.
  • (medicine) Any substance which absorbs and neutralizes acid fluid in the stomach and bowels, as magnesia, chalk, etc.; also a substance, e.g., iodine, which acts on the absorbent vessels so as to reduce enlarged and indurated parts.
  • (chemistry) A liquid used in the process of separating gases or volatile liquids, in oil refining.

    • References

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