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.
Without USMCA, the analysts caution that the capital needed to expand and modernize energy infrastructure could dry up.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
With Turkey hosting COP31 in November, its own environmental record is being scrutinised, and activists have warned about the growing number of water-intensive mining projects as resources dry up.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
It is already causing projects to pause and financing to dry up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
O'Reilly's ability to do both reduced the need for Reijnders in midfield whose minutes began to dry up too.
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026
Whenever he seemed about to dry up, Cecilia prodded him with another question.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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.
