dry up
Britishverb
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(intr) to become barren or unproductive; fail
in middle age his inspiration dried up
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to dry (dishes, cutlery, etc) with a tea towel after they have been washed
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informal (intr) to stop talking or speaking
when I got on the stage I just dried up
dry up!
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Gradually become unproductive, as in After two collections of short stories, his ability to write fiction dried up . Also see well's run dry .
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Stop talking; also, cause to stop talking. For example, Dry up! You've said enough . [ Slang ; mid-1800s]
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.
Some 1.47 million people are displaced in gang-ravaged Haiti, the United Nations' migration agency said Friday, warning that its ability to help could dry up within months.
From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026
“If this federal support starts to dry up, we’re going to soon discover whether the healthcare boom has legs sufficient to stand independently,” Fikri said.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 11, 2026
Some said they couldn't find work, while others saw their income dry up after the authorities restricted the internet when the war started, suffocating industries and workers that relied on connecting to the global web.
From Barron's • Apr. 30, 2026
The fountain, by the way, didn’t just dry up yesterday.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2026
Now you just step right into de kitchen and I’ll dry up dem close—and you can eat an apple pie as I dries,’ pleased him.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
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.
