dry up
Britishverb
-
(intr) to become barren or unproductive; fail
in middle age his inspiration dried up
-
to dry (dishes, cutlery, etc) with a tea towel after they have been washed
-
informal (intr) to stop talking or speaking
when I got on the stage I just dried up
dry up!
-
Gradually become unproductive, as in After two collections of short stories, his ability to write fiction dried up . Also see well's run dry .
-
Stop talking; also, cause to stop talking. For example, Dry up! You've said enough . [ Slang ; mid-1800s]
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.
