If someone hasn't drank in two days they are dehydrated.

I feel like the hungry -> starving process is just a longer version of the thirsty -> dehydrated process

Does it make a difference that starvation takes longer than dehydration, but both result in eventual death? It takes weeks to die of starvation, it takes days to die of dehydration. Just because one manifests over a longer period of time and has a longer recovery period doesn't make the other less deadly

Also, I'm not sure if there are poisons a person can ingest that will strip vital nutrients and push a person into the starvation state (and if the poison does strip vital nutrients, the poisoned person already has bigger problems). But consuming alcohol will push a person into the dehydrated state without killing them.

What if you compared the effects of dehydration and starvation as they progress, like, mild -> acute -> severe -> terminal?

• Mild dehydration (day 1) kidneys conserve water, headache, fatigue
• Mild starvation (week 1) blood sugar drops, liver increases glycogen breakdown, irritability, difficult to concentrate.

Something like that?

This post was brought to you by ADHD, and quite possibly Autism

I dont think that's true in either case.

You can be emaciated without dying, and you can starve to death without being emaciated. They might be somewhat related but not always occurring together.

The same is true of dehydration and dessicated.

'I feel dessicated' and 'I feel dehydrated' both flow fairly well to me, though I'd feel more bougie saying the former unless I was analogizing in the same sentence

I think that's where English got it from actually.

That's because desiccated is past tense. The other forms would be dessicate, dessicates, and desiccating. The "I'm starving to death" would be "I'm desiccating to death"

I think that's right. I would read it as hyperbole to refer to something still alive as desiccated, for sure. If you meant it literally, I wouldn't think of something that is even just dead but like, dried up and leathery, too -- if you're talking about a desiccated cow, I'm thinking more "beef jerky" and less "someone get the vet, and hurry." There are more natural options elsewhere in the comments; I offered mine more as "this is the more well-known word using that root" than "this is the most natural word a native speaker would produce."

No, parched is a light to moderate thirst.

I just never miss never miss an opportunity to slap turbo onto something, as a rule.