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
As this irreverent passage shows, “Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts” is miles away from academic dry-as-dust scholarship.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 25, 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
We find only colourless names, dry-as-dust names, or vulgar names, round names like pot-hats, those names like mackintoshes, names that are squashy as goloshes.
From Interpreters by Carl Van Vechten
"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
I crawl over to her and start to dig beside her, the dirt beneath the grass dry as dust in my fingers.
From "Paper Towns" by John Green
Abby was already asking for something to drink and his own mouth felt dry as dust.
From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret
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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
