Meanings
present singular third person drygulches · participle present drygulching · participle past drygulched · past drygulched · alternative dry gulch · alternative dry-gulch
- USslangTo murder; to attack, assault, especially in an ambush.
‘Then one of them got into the car and dry-gulched me.’
1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, page 771 more example
You've delivered yourselves into the hands of capitalists and Christers, and anybody wants to change any of that steps across ’at frontera, they're drygulched on the spot—though I'm sure you'd know how to avoid that, Dwayne.
2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, pages 722–3
Origin
Because in the American West, outlaws often killed people as they passed through a dry gulch; or because cattle rustlers drove stolen animals off the edge of such a gulch. (ref. John Ayto 1998)
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Polish zabijać z zasadzki, zabić z zasadzki
- zabijać z zasadzkito murder in an ambush
- zabić z zasadzkito murder in an ambush
Cite this entry
drygulch. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drygulch
“drygulch.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drygulch. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “drygulch,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/drygulch.
Source: drygulch on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.