Both Uses of
arid
in
Moby Dick
- Only some thirty arid summers had he seen; those summers had dried up all his physical superfluousness.†
Chpt 25-27 *
- Nor is it, altogether, the remembrance of her cathedral-toppling earthquakes; nor the stampedoes of her frantic seas; nor the tearlessness of arid skies that never rain; nor the sight of her wide field of leaning spires, wrenched cope-stones, and crosses all adroop (like canted yards of anchored fleets); and her suburban avenues of house-walls lying over upon each other, as a tossed pack of cards;—it is not these things alone which make tearless Lima, the strangest, saddest city thou…†
Chpt 40-42
Definition:
-
(arid) lacking sufficient water or rainfall
or:
lacking vitality or spirit