dry up
(intr) to become barren or unproductive; fail: in middle age his inspiration dried up
to dry (dishes, cutlery, etc) with a tea towel after they have been washed
(intr) informal to stop talking or speaking: when I got on the stage I just dried up; dry up!
Words Nearby dry up
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
How to use dry up in a sentence
A lake may dry up in one region, but a new one can form when rains fill a basin elsewhere.
A Cloud Forms Over Saturn’s Mysterious Moon | Matthew R. Francis | August 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIf elephant, rhino, and other African wildlife are poached to extinction, tourism will dry up.
Borana Joins the Fight to Save Kenya’s Rhinos…and Wants You to Help Too | Joanna Eede | February 18, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhen that steady work began to dry up, Burns refused to get discouraged.
Scene-Stealer Jere Burns on ‘Justified,’ ‘Bates Motel,’ ‘Breaking Bad,’ and More | Jason Lynch | May 13, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTLater, manufacturing began to dry up, and local farms became attached to corporate monoliths.
At this rate, the supply of guns available may dry up well before the demand.
Annie, Get Your Gun! School Shooting Sparks Run on Firearms Sales | Matthew DeLuca | December 20, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
Past thirty all men begin to dry up or fatten, and he was certainly a lean person.
The Soldier of the Valley | Nelson LloydYou know that I come of tough fiber—of that old Creole race of Pontelliers that dry up and finally blow away.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories | Kate ChopinThe rain begins softly on the iron roof, and I will do the reverse and—dry up.
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 25 (of 25) | Robert Louis StevensonSprings dry up and a luxurious, well-watered country becomes a veritable desert.
Our National Forests | Richard H. Douai BoerkerIf these connections with the upper springs were to be cut off, the beautiful lake would speedily dry up and disappear.
Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of Matthew | John Monro Gibson
Other Idioms and Phrases with dry up
Gradually become unproductive, as in After two collections of short stories, his ability to write fiction dried up. Also see well's run dry.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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