[ adj ] (used especially of vegetation) having lost all moisture <adj.all> dried-up grassthe desert was edged with sere vegetation shriveled leaves on the unwatered seedlings withered vines
Sear \Sear\, Sere \Sere\ (s[=e]r), a. [OE. seer, AS. se['a]r (assumed) fr. se['a]rian to wither; akin to D. zoor dry, LG. soor, OHG. sor[=e]n to wither, Gr. a"y`ein to parch, to dry, Skr. [,c]ush (for sush) to dry, to wither, Zend hush to dry. [root]152. Cf. {Austere}, {Sorrel}, a.] Dry; withered; no longer green; -- applied to leaves. --Milton.
I have lived long enough; my way of life Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf. --Shak.
Sere \Sere\, a. Dry; withered. Same as {Sear}.
But with its sound it shook the sails That were so thin and sere. --Coleridge.
Sere \Sere\, n. [F. serre.] Claw; talon. [Obs.] --Chapman.
Panoche Farms, named for a spindly creek that straggles through sere flatlands, was until a few years ago a single operation run by a partnership between two agribusiness families, the Hansens and the Bakers.
Short answer: looking for an American audience. Jeremy Irons, sere of face and cicatriced with moustache, regales his college history class with trauma-packed memories of boyhood, sex and East Anglia.