Five sets of moisture retention capacity (MRC) experiments were conducted in degradation-compression-permeation cells for municipal solid waste (MSW). The variations of MRC with degradation time under different temperature conditions and incremental stresses for fresh high food waste content (HFWC) MSW were characterized, and the variation of MRC with stress for fresh HFWC-MSW, fresh zero food waste content (NFWC) MSW and decomposed MSW (D-MSW) were determined. Based on the experimental results, the following findings were obtained:MRC of fresh HFWC-MSW decreased exponentially with the degradation time, i.e., MRC=a-b(1-exp(-ct^d)); the values of c and d were obtained as 0.003 and 1.18 under the stress of 10kPa and room temperature of 0~27℃, while 0.173 and 0.601 under the stress of 10 kPa and constant temperature of (40±3)℃. MRC of fresh HFWC-MSW sharply dropped 3.0%, 2.3% and 1.9% after the application of incremental stresses of 100kPa, 200kPa and 400kPa, respectively. MRC appeared to decrease linearly with an increase of logarithmic stress for fresh HFWC-MSW, NFWC-MSW and D-MSW, i.e., MRC=m-n×lg(σ). The MRCs of fresh HFWC-MSW, D-MSW and NFWC-MSW decreased from 63.0%, 46.5% and 37.9% to 46.0%, 35.3% and 30.4%, respectively, with an increase of stress from 10kPa to 400kPa. It was concluded from the analyses of reference data that the MRC of fresh MSW increased with the food waste content and the MRC of aged MSW with different compositions were basically consistent under a given stress. The influence mechanism of degradation and stress on MRC of fresh HFWC-MSW was discussed, and the practical implications were proposed to enhance the dewatering of fresh HFWC-MSW.