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How to describe the dry, drying, or solid state for such as blood?

Do people just say blood dries or the blood is dried?

I did a web search of "blood solidifies", but it did not look like a correct usage.

I would like to understand both colloquial and formal usage of this description.

Another thing is that pudding does not dry out because when it solidifies, it ends in a gel-like, soft, and flexible state. How do I describe this solidifying and have-solidified state?

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    Blood coagulates (forms a gooey clot), then dries into something a little tarry-looking, then dries completely. It does not go through a flexible gel phase. Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 7:27

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Dessicated

Merriam Webster says

des·ic·cate

\ˈde-si-ˌkāt\ verb des·ic·cat·eddes·ic·cat·ing transitive verb

1 :to dry up

2 :to preserve (a food) by drying :dehydrate

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  • Thank you very much, but I have a question. Can desiccate describe a pudding, which is not thoroughly dried?
    – Superuser
    Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 7:22
  • @Superuser Desiccate is mostly used for making powder out of something fluent. E.g. milk or coconut, as M-W also states later: "add a cup of desiccated coconut to the mix". What you are looking for is my suggestion coagulate or another word fitting better the case of pudding: congelate Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 7:31
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    @AverageGatsby Perhaps you mean fluid?
    – user63230
    Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 8:27
  • @andy256 oh well, you got me. Thanks :). Nevertheless that doesn't change the fact that I am right. Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 8:31
  • @AverageGatsby I'm sure the OP will decide what word suits them best :-)
    – user63230
    Commented Feb 2, 2015 at 8:40
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Congeal or coagulate are decent choices. Or you could always go the more "artistic" route and use a simile instead of one specific word, "The pool of blood by the victim's head had hardened to a state somewhere between old pudding and candle wax."

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coagulation / to coagulate medicinenet

The clotting of blood

M-W says:

coagulate (verb)
to become thick and partly solid

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