dry-as-dust
adjective
dull and boring.
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dry-as-dust
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dry as dust
dry as dustDull, boring, as in This text is dry as dust; it's putting me to sleep. [c. 1500]
dry-as-dust
American
[drahy-uhz-duhst]
/ ˈdraɪ əzˈdʌst /
Or
dryasdust
adjective
dry as dust
Idioms
Etymology
Origin of dry-as-dust
1870–75; after Dr. Dryasdust, a fictitious pedant satirized in the prefaces of Sir Walter Scott's novels
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:
Yesterday, the decision emerged in a dry-as-dust news release at the dog end of the political day.
From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2022
Even that old windbag Polonius, played by Robert Joy, is less a bombastic grandstander than a dry-as-dust martinet.
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2018
Yet Irwin is hardly a dry-as-dust antiquary, and “Wonders Will Never Cease” frequently reveals the wide range of his reading: His description of the world’s end was obviously adapted from H.G.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 27, 2017
“I withstood all the pain, standing out here in the rain,” he sings, over a dry-as-dust, horn-punctuated backbeat that would have graced any of his early 1970s singles.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 20, 2016
The dry-as-dust pages of the medieval law-books hide many jewels for whoever has patience to seek them, but none brighter than this story.
From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Power, Eileen
"I love genealogists, and they make what I do possible, but those records can be as dry as dust," Gates said during a recent interview.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2014
"Are you aware," he said, in a voice dry as dust, "that there's a $60 tip for the minister?"
From The Guardian ● Mar. 27, 2010
He had been clad in mail, and still his harness lay there whole; for the cavern’s air was as dry as dust, and his hauberk was gilded.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Cicadas hummed insistently in the trees, and the soil was dry as dust.
From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings
The next day she said I did not put in enough water, and the rice was dry as dust.
From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan
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.
