Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, characterized by, or adapted to an extremely dry habitat.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Said of an environment or habitat that is extremely dry, lacking humidity and water.
  • adjective Said of an organism adapted to live in a very dry habitat.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective being deficient in moisture

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ξηρός (ksēros, "dry").

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Examples

  • She said more "xeric" plant species - ones that use less water - are available but they are deciduous, which means they drop leaves in the summer, or they are cactuses or succulents.

    AroundTheCapitol.com 2009

  • She said more "xeric" plant species - ones that use less water - are available but they are deciduous, which means they drop leaves in the summer, or they are cactuses or succulents.

    AroundTheCapitol.com 2009

  • In this post-apocalyptic diorama, they sleep swallowed in whatever clothes and blankets they own to avoid freezing to death; they cook in tin cans; their women bleed to death giving birth; their children die of diseases the modern world thought eradicated; their men are despondent; weather permitting, they trek over xeric dirt roads and down jarring mountain slopes for countless hours and miles to reach a paved road.

    Global Voices in English » Blogging About Poverty And Development In The Arab World 2009

  • Tagged: Calvin and Hobbes · comic books · comic strips · Drawn and Quarterly · Fantagraphics · graphic novels · indie · Six by 6 · top shelf · xeric

    Six by 6 | Six ‘retired’ artists we’d like to see return to comics | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment 2009

  • It's on a hillside and has incredible diversity and is xeric.

    Garden Goddess for Hire 2010

  • The southern delineation follows the transition to moist forests and the northern delineation the transition to xeric desert.

    Sinú Valley dry forests 2008

  • Municipalities and water utilities want people to go xeric, offering "cash-for-grass" incentives to homeowners who replace lawns with low-water-use gardens.

    Gardening Without a Sprinkler 2010

  • Northern limits of this ecoregion are the xeric habitats of the Guajira area and dry forests of the Sinú Valley.

    Magdalena-Urabá moist forests 2008

  • Soil slightly hilled around a spiraling path of stone serves as raised flower beds to help encourage drainage -- a critical element in xeric garden design, so that roots of dryness-loving plants don't sit in water.

    Giving Up On Grass 2010

  • Many xeric principles are simply common sense: Choose native plants rather than exotics, which can sometimes need lots of extra hosing.

    Gardening Without a Sprinkler 2010

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