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.
Dry up thi peepies, pet, wipe thi wet face; Tears o' thy little cheeks seem aght o' place.
From Yorkshire Lyrics Poems written in the Dialect as Spoken in the West Riding of Yorkshire. To which are added a Selection of Fugitive Verses not in the Dialect by Hartley, John
"Dry up, dry up, dry up, dry UP!"
From Penrod by Tarkington, Booth
Dry up on them corpse tunes o' yourn, Harvey Mace.
From Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays by Various
"Dry up, Ashley minor!" rejoined the inventor indignantly.
From The Lighter Side of School Life by Hay, Ian
"Dry up, no chaff, you dealt," he said.
From The Second String by Gould, Nat
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.
