dry-as-dust
Americanadjective
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.
Yesterday, the decision emerged in a dry-as-dust news release at the dog end of the political day.
From BBC • Dec. 8, 2022
Hughes has infused new life into dry-as-dust facts to produce a learned work that is brazenly, impudently vivacious.
From Washington Post • Mar. 7, 2018
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
Even when they didn’t, there was always Mr Norton to nudge them along with a dry-as-dust “oops. That’s got to be awkward.”
From The Guardian • May 23, 2015
It is this change of scene that makes French history so appealing to those who might otherwise let it remain in shut-up and dry-as-dust books on library shelves.
From Royal Palaces and Parks of France by McManus, Blanche
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.
