The abnormal global climate change has caused dramatic variation in the water cycle worldwide, and extreme weather and drought and flood disasters have occurred frequently. Drought has become one of the most common non-stress biological stresses in agricultural production. Drought stress can directly or indirectly affect the photosynthesis, osmotic regulation and endogenous hormone levels of plants, thereby reducing crop yield and quality and seriously restricting agricultural production. Uniconazole has the characteristics of high efficiency, broad spectrum and rapidity. It has the functions of dwarfing plants, preventing lodging and increasing the content of chlorophyll. It also plays an important role in plant tolerance and resistance to stress. Exogenous uniconazole alleviates the damage of drought stress on plant physical and chemical processes. In this review we systematically summarized the effects of drought stress on the physical and chemical processes of plants, and clarified the stress response of plants to drought stress from the aspects of photosynthesis, carbon metabolism, stress physiology, endogenous hormone levels and stress resistance gene expression. Further we analyzed the positive effects of exogenous uniconazole on regulating reactive oxygen species metabolism and antioxidant defense system, increasing osmotic adjustment substance content, regulating endogenous hormone levels and inducing gene expression under drought stress. Finally, we pointed out the research status and development trend of exogenous uniconazole alleviating drought stress, which provide direction and basis for future research on drought resistance of crop production [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]