dry

comparative drier · comparative dryer · superlative driest · superlative dryest · alternative obsolete drie

1. Free from or lacking moisture.

   This towel's dry. Could you wet it and cover the chicken so it doesn't go dry as it cooks?

   5 more examples

   The weather, […] we […] both agreed, was too dry for the season.

   2026 November 8 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 22. Sunday, March 5. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC

   The marjorum stood in ruddy and fragrant masses; harebells and campanulas of several kinds, that are cultivated in our gardens, with bells large and clear; crimson pinks; the Michaelmas daisy; a plant with a thin, radiated yellow flower, of the character of an aster; a centaurea of a light purple, handsomer than any English one; a thistle in the dryest places, resembling an eryngo, with a thick, bushy top; mulleins, yellow and white; the wild mignonnette, and the white convolvulus; and clematis festooning the bushes, recalled the flowery fields and lanes of England, and yet told us that we were not there.

   1850, Harper's Magazine, volume 1, page 449

   Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly.

   1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC

   The project poses exceptional challenges, given that Antarctica is the coldest, windiest and driest continent on Earth, as well as the most remote and inaccessible, being almost totally covered by a vast ice sheet.

   2019 September 26, Gianluca Mezzofiore, “Wanted: A design team for a building project at Earth’s most remote location – Antarctica”, in CNN

   It is one of the first towns in the United States to purposely stall growth for want of water in a new era of megadroughts. But it could be a harbinger of things to come in a hotter, drier West. […] Experts say the smallest towns are especially vulnerable. And few places in Utah are as tiny or dry as Echo, a jumble of homes squeezed between a freight railroad and stunning red-rock cliffs.

   2021 July 20, Jack Healy, Sophie Kasakove, “A Drought So Dire That a Utah Town Pulled the Plug on Growth”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2021

2. Unable to produce a liquid, as water, (petrochemistry) oil, or (agriculture) milk.

   This well is as dry as that cow.

3. businessBuilt without or lacking mortar.

   [A]lready the gate was blocked with a wall of squared stones laid dry, but very thick and very high, across the opening.

   1937 September 21, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “The Gathering of the Clouds”, in The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again, revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published February 1966 (August 1967 printing), →OCLC, page 247

4. chemistryAnhydrous: free from or lacking water in any state, regardless of the presence of other liquids.

   Dry alcohol is 200 proof.

5. figurativelyAthirst, eager.

   Prospero:[…]Confederates / (ſo drie he was for Sway) with King of Naples / To giue him Annuall tribute, doe him homage / Subiect his Coronet, to his Crowne and bend / The Dukedom yet vnbow'd (alas poore Millaine) / To moſt ignoble ſtooping.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

6. Free from or lacking alcohol or alcoholic beverages.

   Of course it's a dry house. He was an alcoholic but he's been dry for almost a year now.

   1 more example

   Ol. Go too, y'are a dry foole: Ile no more of you: besides you grow dis-honest. Clo. Two faults Madona, that drinke & good counsell wil amend: for giue the dry foole drink, then is the foole not dry[…]

   c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]

   Synonyms: sober

7. lawDescribing an area where sales of alcoholic or strong alcoholic beverages are banned.

   You'll have to drive out of this dry county to find any liquor.

8. Free from or lacking embellishment or sweetness, particularly

   These epistles will become less dry, more susceptible of ornament.

   1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC

9. Free from or lacking embellishment or sweetness
   1. wine and other alcoholic beverages; ginger ale; wine and other alcoholic beverages; ginger aleLow in sugar; lacking sugar; unsweetened.

      Proper martinis are made with London dry gin and dry vermouth.

      1 more example

      Fatima Blush: Oh, how reckless of me. I made you all wet. James Bond: Yes, but my martini is still dry. My name is James.

      1983, Lorenzo Semple Jr., Never Say Never Again

   2. humorAmusing without showing amusement.

      Steven Wright has a deadpan delivery, Norm Macdonald has a dry sense of humor, and Oscar Wilde had a dry wit.

   3. Lacking interest, boring.

      a dry academic discipline turned into a living subject

      4 more examples

      A dry lecture may require the professor to bring a water gun in order to keep the students' attention.

      Ol. Go too, y'are a dry foole: Ile no more of you: besides you grow dis-honest. Clo. Two faults Madona, that drinke & good counsell wil amend: for giue the dry foole drink, then is the foole not dry […]

      c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]

      Mr. Evans naturally does not see things in a dry light. He has the dramatic instinct, and impresses it on all he touches.

      1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 2

      But there we were given only the dullest, driest, pemmicanised forms like The Student's Hume, Once I had a hundred pages of The Student's Hume as a holiday task.

      2012, Winston S. Churchill, Martin Gilbert, Churchill: The Power of Words, page 14

      Antonyms: live, living

   4. card gamesOf a board or flop: Not permitting the creation of many or of strong hands.

      Jake was hoping to make something good out of his suited 7-8 hand, but the flop came out dry: 2-5-10 rainbow, and all of the wrong suit!.

   5. fine artsExhibiting precise execution lacking delicate contours or soft transitions of color.
10. aeronauticsNot using afterburners or water injection for increased thrust.

    This fighter jet's engine has a maximum dry thrust of 200 kilonewtons.

11. derogatorysciencesInvolving computations rather than work with biological or chemical matter.
12. Free from applied audio effects (especially reverb).
13. Without a usual complement or consummation; impotent.

    making a dry run

    5 more examples

    never dry fire a bow

    dry humping her girlfriend

    dry snitches are as bad as regular snitches

    A loose nocking point is equally dangerous since it may result in what is known as a 'dry release' when the arrow merely falls from a string a few feet away as the bow is shot. This may distort or weaken the bow.

    1958, Gordon Grimley, The Book of the Bow, page 167

    […] most like "dry firing," or a dry release, wherein the string meets no resistance.

    1992, Pennsylvania Game News, volume 63, page 57

    1. Of a bite from an animal: not containing the usual venom.

       dry bite

14. In a dry spell (e.g., unemployed, slow).

    Things are dry right now. We're hoping business'll pick up next month.

    1 more example

    Fa la la la Fa la la lee Now let me go, my honey oh back to Tennessee It's beefsteak when I'm workin, whiskey when I'm dry, and sweet heaven when I die

    2011, Gillian Welch, “Tennessee”, in The Harrow & the Harvest, performed by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

15. ChristianityOf a mass, service, or rite: involving neither consecration nor communion.
16. MalaysiaSingaporeMixed with sauce and not served in a soup.

    I would have mee tai mak (short, thick noodles), either in soup or dry, with fishballs, pork balls or yong tau foo at this noodles shop near my house.

    2006 July 30, Teo Pau Lin, quoting Wong Hon Mun, The Straits Times, quoted in Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English, Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings Limited, page L28

plural drys · plural dries · alternative obsolete drie

1. The process by which something is dried.

   This towel is still damp: I think it needs another dry.

2. USA prohibitionist (of alcoholic beverages).

   The drys were as unhappy with the second part of the speech as the wets were with the first half.

   c. 1952-1996, Noah S. Sweat, quoted in 1996

3. An area with little or no rain, or sheltered from it.

   Come under my umbrella and keep in the dry.

4. Australiawith definite articleThe dry season.

   [T]he spring-fed river systems. Not the useless little tributary jutting off into a mud hole at the end of the Dry.

   2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo, published 2012, page 169

   1 more example

   […] one was sodden to the bone and mildewed to the marrow and moved to pray […] for that which formerly he had cursed—the Dry! the good old Dry—when the grasses yellowed, browned, dried to tinder, burst into spontaneous flame— […]

   1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 91

5. AustraliaAn area of waterless country.
6. Unsweetened ginger ale; dry ginger.

   Can you buy dry ginger in Croatia? If not what is an alternative?

   2018 May 2, pyatts, Tripadvisor

   2 more examples

   All day, all night you feel as if the Earth could fly/Three more all for fine Indian Gin and whiskey dry.

   1968, Bee Gees, “Indian Gin And Whiskey Dry”, in Idea(album)

   Black Douglas Blended Scotch and Dry Case 24 x 375mL Cans (Title).

   2021 July 26, cub_beer, “Archived copy”, in eBay, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2021

7. UKgovernmentA radical or hard-line Conservative; especially, one who supported the policies of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

   Antonyms: wet

present singular third person dries · participle present drying · participle past dried · past dried · first person past singular dried · archaic present second person singular driest · past second person singular dried · present singular third person dries · archaic present singular third person drieth · past singular third person dried · past plural dried · past subjunctive dried · participle present drying · participle past dried · alternative obsolete drie

1. intransitiveTo lose moisture.

   The clothes dried on the line.

   1 more example

   The fruit dried in the dehydrator.

   Synonyms: dehydrate, desiccate

2. transitiveTo remove moisture from.

   We dried the fruit in the dehydrator.

   1 more example

   Devin dried her eyes with a handkerchief.

   Synonyms: dehydrate, desiccate

3. figurativelytransitiveTo exhaust; to cause to run dry.

   Synonyms: dry up

4. informalintransitiveentertainmentFor an actor to forget their lines while performing.

   In one of the previews I dried (lost my lines) in my opening scene, 1.4, and had to improvise.

   2006, Michael Dobson, Performing Shakespeare's Tragedies Today, page 126

   2 more examples

   An actor never stumbled over his lines, he “fluffed”; he never forgot his dialogue, he “dried.”

   1986, Richard Collier, Make-believe: The Magic of International Theatre, page 146

   Blinded to the astonishment of a thousand spectators by the force of the footlights, [Derek] Jacobi realised he'd dried. Dried completely. It wasn't like he'd forgotten the words. It was like he'd never known them.

   2024 June 1, John Phipps, “The lamentable true history of the Red Hamlet”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18

1. abbreviationacronymcomputingAcronym of don't repeat yourself (“software development principle aimed at reducing repetition”).

   The general principle here is DRY: Don't Repeat Yourself (HTOO). If you duplicate information in two or more places, sooner or later, you'll forget to update one of the copies […]

   2005, Greg Wilson, Data Crunching: Solve Everyday Problems Using Java, Python, and More

comparative DRYer · superlative DRYest

1. computingOf code, having the quality of adhering to the principle of DRY; containing as little repetition as possible.

   Antonyms: WET

present singular third person DRYs · participle present DRYing · participle past DRYed · past DRYed

1. computingTo cause code to become DRY; to remove repetition from code.

plural Drys

1. A surname.