dry
Americanadjective
-
free from moisture or excess moisture; not moist; not wet.
a dry towel; dry air.
- Antonyms:
- wet
-
having or characterized by little or no rain.
a dry climate; the dry season.
-
characterized by absence, deficiency, or failure of natural or ordinary moisture.
-
not under, in, or on water.
It was good to be on dry land.
-
not now containing or yielding water or other liquid; depleted or empty of liquid.
The well is dry.
-
not yielding milk.
a dry cow.
-
free from tears.
dry eyes.
-
drained or evaporated away.
a dry river.
-
desiring drink; thirsty.
He was so dry he could hardly speak.
-
causing thirst.
dry work.
-
served or eaten without butter, jam, etc..
dry toast.
-
(of cooked food) lacking enough moisture or juice to be satisfying or succulent.
-
(of bread and bakery products) stale.
-
of or relating to nonliquid substances or commodities.
dry measure; dry provisions.
-
(of wines) not sweet.
-
(of a cocktail)
-
made with dry vermouth.
a dry Manhattan.
-
made with relatively little dry vermouth.
a dry martini.
-
-
characterized by or favoring prohibition of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors for use in beverages.
a dry state.
-
(of British biscuits) not sweet.
-
plain; bald; unadorned.
dry facts.
-
dull; uninteresting.
a dry subject.
- Antonyms:
- interesting
-
expressed in a straight-faced, matter-of-fact way.
dry humor.
-
indifferent; cold; unemotional.
a dry answer.
-
unproductive.
The greatest of artists have dry years.
-
(of lumber) fully seasoned.
-
Building Trades.
-
(of masonry construction) built without fresh mortar or cement.
-
(of a wall, ceiling, etc., in an interior) finished without the use of fresh plaster.
-
-
Ceramics.
-
insufficiently glazed.
-
Art. hard and formal in outline, or lacking mellowness and warmth in color.
verb (used with object)
-
dries,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dried,
past participle, past
-
drying
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
dries,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dried,
past participle, past
-
drying
present participle
noun
-
drys,
plural
-
dries
plural
-
a prohibitionist.
-
a dry place, area, or region.
verb phrase
-
dry out
-
to make or become completely dry.
-
to undergo or cause to undergo detoxification from consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol.
-
-
dry up
-
to make or become completely dry.
-
to cease to exist; evaporate.
-
Informal. to stop talking.
-
(in acting) to forget one's lines or part.
-
idioms
adjective
-
lacking moisture; not damp or wet
-
having little or no rainfall
-
not in or under water
dry land
-
having the water drained away or evaporated
a dry river
-
not providing milk
a dry cow
-
(of the eyes) free from tears
-
-
informal in need of a drink; thirsty
-
causing thirst
dry work
-
-
eaten without butter, jam, etc
dry toast
-
(of a wine, cider, etc) not sweet
-
pathol not accompanied by or producing a mucous or watery discharge
a dry cough
-
consisting of solid as opposed to liquid substances or commodities
-
without adornment; plain
dry facts
-
lacking interest or stimulation
a dry book
-
lacking warmth or emotion; cold
a dry greeting
-
(of wit or humour) shrewd and keen in an impersonal, sarcastic, or laconic way
-
opposed to or prohibiting the sale of alcoholic liquor for human consumption
a dry area
-
(of a ewe) without a lamb after the mating season
-
electronics (of a soldered electrical joint) imperfect because the solder has not adhered to the metal, thus reducing conductance
verb
-
to make or become dry or free from moisture
-
(tr) to preserve (meat, vegetables, fruit, etc) by removing the moisture
noun
-
informal a Conservative politician who is considered to be a hard-liner Compare wet
-
informal the dry season
-
an informal word for prohibitionist
Synonym Usage
Dry, arid both mean without moisture. Dry is the general word indicating absence of water or freedom from moisture: a dry well; dry clothes. Arid suggests great or intense dryness in a region or climate, especially such as results in bareness or in barrenness: arid tracts of desert. See evaporate.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
drynessnoun
-
overdrynessnoun
-
redryverb
-
predryverb (used with object)
-
underdryverb (used with object)
-
dryableadjective
-
overdryadjective
-
ultradryadjective
-
undryadjective
-
undryableadjective
-
drylyadverb
-
overdrylyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
drysimple
-
driessimple
-
have driedperfect
-
has driedperfect
-
am dryingprogressive
-
are dryingprogressive
-
is dryingprogressive
-
have been dryingperfect progressive
-
has been dryingperfect progressive
Past
-
driedsimple
-
had driedperfect
-
was dryingprogressive
-
were dryingprogressive
-
had been dryingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dry
First recorded before 900; Middle English drie, Old English drȳge; akin to Dutch droog, German trocken; see drought
Explanation
Things that are dry lack moisture. A desert or a dessert can be dry. If your eyes are dry, you’ve stopped crying. It’s also a flavor that means the opposite of sweet. The Sahara Desert and crumbly chocolate cake are both dry. Dry is also a verb — when you paint your kitchen, you have to wait for the first coat to dry before you can add another. If someone says you have a dry sense of humor, they mean that you have a subtle style, keeping a straight face even when you say something outrageous.
Vocabulary lists containing dry
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It means the journey needs to be completed as quickly as possible, and staff have to be constantly on hand to make sure he does not dry out or dehydrate.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
Some rain is forecast for Scotland and Northern Ireland on Saturday before reaching northern England and north Wales on Sunday; elsewhere, it is likely to remain dry.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
Sugar climbed 5.6% in July, as persistent hot and dry weather raised concerns over crop yields in the European Union and El Nino threatened production in key Asian producers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
It still has Bob’s Big Boy, the last restaurant of a once-large chain known for its chubby mascot, and Milt & Edie’s, a quirky pink-awninged 24-hour tailor and dry cleaner dating to the 1980s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
It was tiresome wearing the same dress every day that I worked, starching up the collar and dab-washing the armpits every night so it would be dry by the next morning.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
This air also dries out, meaning no clouds can form, so strong sunshine is able to heat the ground even further.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
One of the biggest advantages of the technique is that the bubbles disappear completely as the droplet dries, leaving behind no residue.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
The research is the first to reveal how this concentration of rainfall into fewer, heavier events dries out the landscape.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2026
"We work in staggered timing... doing our work in early mornings and after sunset," said 42-year-old Babulal Narayan, who rakes the salt as brine water dries in shallow pools.
From Barron's ● May 10, 2026
“This will work fine,” said Seth, “once it dries off.”
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
That really divided Whigs between drys and wets.
From Slate ● Apr. 5, 2017
So who are the other Washington VIPs queuing up for blow drys, yoga, personal training and makeup application in the comfort of their open concept living rooms?
From Washington Post ● Jan. 28, 2015
And while profits from cuts, colouring and blow drys have remained static, in 2012 the salon's hair extension business has grown 60% year on year.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 28, 2012
But she nonetheless tells her very fellow drys that she can secure Nucky’s help in doing away with these neighborhood stashes.
From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2010
The "wets" obsessed by the idea that woman suffrage is "next door to prohibition" used their entire machinery to defeat the amendments, while the "drys" regarded the amendments as distinctly separate questions.
From Woman Suffrage By Federal Constitutional Amendment by Catt, Carrie Chapman
In India and Southeast Asia, it typically causes drier conditions.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Climate change is expected to bring drier and hotter summers which could further exacerbate this issue.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Every time we burn fossil fuels, it adds more chemicals to the atmosphere that trap more heat, creating a positive feedback loop that makes everything hotter and drier.
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026
While forecasts point to rain around the Mediterranean, other regions can expect “severely drier than average conditions” until September, it said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
If heat was the subject, then at that time the papers listed Fargo as hotter than any place else, or wetter or drier, or deeper in snow.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
“Of all the dams I have built and of all the dams I have ever seen, it was the driest dam of its size I ever saw in my life.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
This is a pattern that has become all too familiar in recent weeks, as the UK experienced its driest and sunniest July on record.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
England and Wales both experienced the "driest July on record", the UK Met Office weather agency said Monday, based on provisional figures.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
Following one of the driest and hottest stretches of weather in the UK's history, the indications are that August is likely to bring more of the same.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
Africa is the only continent to extend from the northern to the southern temperate zone, while also encompassing some of the world’s driest deserts, largest tropical rain forests, and highest equatorial mountains.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
As late as the 1800s, most commodities were cultivated: Cinnamon bark was peeled and rolled into quills, opium juiced from poppies, and tea leaves dried out in the sun.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
The trial dried out the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine with trehalose to protect its vital components.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Later, repeated heat waves and a period of drought dried out that vegetation, turning it into abundant fuel.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026
Tourism in the region has dried up, and investment is under pressure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Instead of the floodwaters faced that past spring, the dried, midsummer dirt floor was so hard that even with many men working, the hole deepened only a few inches each hour.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
Some polygonal formations previously examined by Curiosity clearly began as cracks in drying mud.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
Eisenman adds that fans can cause more water to evaporate from your skin in dry conditions such as L.A., further drying you out.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
This includes drying riverbeds, fish in distress, an accumulation of algae, wildfire risk and concern from farmers about crop growth, grazing conditions and water availability for livestock.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
In a standard triple-wash system, cut lettuce moves through a series of flumes filled with treated water before spin drying.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
“Every night,” he says, drying his hands off.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
