Dictionary

dry up en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To become dry (often of weather); to lose water.
   • But those newcomers need water — water that is vanishing as a megadrought dries up reservoirs and rivers across the West. […] Groundwater and streams vital both to farmers and cities are drying up. […] Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah said all but one of the fields on his family’s farm had dried up. 2021 July 20, Jack Healy, Sophie Kasakove, “A Drought So Dire That a Utah Town Pulled the Plug on Growth”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2021:
   • Last summer the lake completely dried up.
   • I'll go shopping when it dries up.
2. (transitive) To cause to become dry.
   • The heatwave dried up all the rivers.
3. (ambitransitive, intransitive) To manually dry dishes and utensils.
   • I'll dry up if you wash up.
4. (transitive) To deprive someone of (something vital).
   • The bankruptcy rumor dried up his sales.
5. (intransitive) To gradually decrease and eventually cease.
   • This love has dried up and stayed behind 2008, Adele, First Love:
   • After the stock market crash, the easy financing dried up.
   • When our money dried up, we had to get proper jobs.
6. (intransitive) To stop talking because one has forgotten what one was going to say.
   • This surprised me so much that I dried up for a moment.
   • “Well, Atticus, I was just sayin‘ to Mr. Cunningham that entailments are bad an’ all that, but you said not to worry, it takes a long time sometimes… that you all’d ride it out together…” I was slowly drying up, wondering what idiocy I had committed. 1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:
7. (intransitive, of an actor) To stop talking because one has forgotten what one was going to say. ▸ To forget one's lines.
8. (qualifier:1930s US slang) To stop talking or drop a topic.
   • "Oh, dry up,' said Arnold morosely. 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 168:
   • Oh, dry up, you old fuddy-duddy!

Forms

Coordinates

tank · shut up · ruin · freeze up · dry out · wipe out · freeze up · shut up · dry out

Deriveds

dry up and blow away

Hypernyms

dry · dry

Synonyms

clam up · shut up · dehydrate · wither away · dehydrate · desiccate · desiccate · wipe up · dry

Translations (38)

fi kuivua (to become dry) · ro se usca (to become dry) · ota قورومق (to become dry) · pl wyczerpać się (to become dry) · pl wysuszać (to cause to become dry) · kw desygha (to become dry) · de verdorren (to become dry) · de vertrocknen (to become dry) · pl wysuszyć (to cause to become dry) · ro usca (to cause to become dry) · de trockenlegen (to cause to become dry) · de versiegen (to become dry) · sq thaj (to become dry) · uga 𐎃𐎗𐎁 (to become dry) · tr kurutmak (to cause to become dry) · sa शुष्यति (to become dry) · ug قۇرۇماق (to become dry) · sv sina (to become dry) · sq ter (to become dry) · tr kurulamak (to cause to become dry) · pl wysychać (to become dry) · kw desegha (to become dry) · de austrocknen (to cause to become dry) · clt ky (to become dry) · pl wyczerpywać się (to become dry) · fi kuivattaa (to cause to become dry) · ug قۇرۇتماق (to cause to become dry) · la adārēscō (to become dry) · nl opdrogen (to become dry) · kw deseha (to become dry) · pl wyschnąć (to become dry) · got 𐌲𐌰𐌸𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍃𐌽𐌰𐌽 (to become dry) · de austrocknen (to become dry) · bg изсъхвам (to become dry) · pl wyczerpać (to cause to become dry) · pl wyczerpywać (to cause to become dry) · tr kurumak (to become dry) · eu agortu (to become dry)