dry law

American

noun

a law prohibiting the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages.

dry law British

noun

a law prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

Courting the female vote, the state’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar made the dry law a bedrock of his re-election campaign and signed the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act in 2016.

From Salon • Feb. 2, 2025

"This bureau which you supported," the Senator concluded, "really enforced the dry law then, in the absence of the legislation which the State Legislature refused to pass?"

From Time Magazine Archive

They were unable to disregard the voters' growing disgust with the dry law.

From Time Magazine Archive

Speakeasies flourished, for Nevada has no dry law.

From Time Magazine Archive

For it is in Quebec, where the "dry" law is not implacable as that of Ottawa and Ontario.

From Westward with the Prince of Wales by Newton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023