Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Free from liquid or moisture.
- adjective Having or characterized by little or no rain.
- adjective Marked by the absence of natural or normal moisture.
- adjective Not under water.
- adjective Having all the water or liquid drained away, evaporated, or exhausted.
- adjective No longer yielding liquid, especially milk.
- adjective Not producing a liquid substance that is normally produced.
- adjective Not shedding tears.
- adjective Needing moisture or drink.
- adjective No longer wet.
- adjective Of or relating to solid rather than liquid substances or commodities.
- adjective Not sweet as a result of the decomposition of sugar during fermentation. Used of wines.
- adjective Having a large proportion of strong liquor to other ingredients.
- adjective Eaten or served without butter, gravy, or other garnish.
- adjective Having no adornment or coloration; plain.
- adjective Devoid of bias or personal concern.
- adjective Lacking tenderness, warmth, or involvement; severe.
- adjective Matter-of-fact or indifferent in manner.
- adjective Wearisome; dull.
- adjective Humorous in an understated or unemotional way.
- adjective Prohibiting or opposed to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages.
- adjective Unproductive of the expected results.
- adjective Constructed without mortar or cement.
- intransitive verb To remove the moisture from; make dry.
- intransitive verb To preserve (meat or other foods, for example) by extracting the moisture.
- intransitive verb To become dry.
- noun A prohibitionist.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make dry; free from water or from moisture of any kind, and by any means, as by wiping, evaporation, exhalation, or drainage; desiccate: as, to
dry the eyes; to dry hay; wind dries the earth; to dry a meadow or a swamp. - To cause to evaporate or exhale; stop the flow of: as, to
dry out the water from a wet garment. - To wither; parch.
- To evaporate completely; stop the flow of: as, the fierce heat dried up all the streams.
- To lose moisture; become free from moisture.
- To evaporate; be exhaled; lose fluidity: as, water dries away rapidly; blood dries quickly on exposure to the air.
- To be wholly evaporated; cease to flow.
- To wither, as a limb
- To cease talking; be silent.
- In pathology, not attended with suppuration, a fluid discharge or exudation, or hemorrhage.
- noun Dry land: as, to execute a piece of engineering work in the dry (that is, not under water).
- Without moisture; not moist; absolutely or comparatively free from water or wetness, or from fluid of any kind: as, dry land; dry clothes; dry weather; a dry day; dry wood; dry bones.
- Specifically
- In geology and mining, free from the presence or use of water, or distant from water: as, dry diggings; dry separation.
- Not giving milk: as, a dry cow.
- Thirsty; craving drink, especially intoxicating drink.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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You can dry them by shaking them up lightly in a large clean cloth, and you can spread them out and let them get _dry_ an hour or two before they are dressed.
Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery A Manual of Cheap and Wholesome Diet A. G. Payne 1867
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Of the 1,919.9 lbs. of ash in the acre of clover-roots and stubble, there are 1,429.4 lbs. of sand, clay, etc. But even after deducting this amount of impurities from a gross total of dry matter per acre, we still have 7,492.2 lbs. of dry roots and stubble per acre, or nearly 3¼ tons of _dry_ roots per acre.
Talks on Manures A Series of Familiar and Practical Talks Between the Author and the Deacon, the Doctor, and other Neighbors, on the Whole Subject Joseph Harris 1860
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-- Take a yard of flannel, fold it in three widths, then dip it in very hot water, wring it out tolerably dry, and apply it evenly and neatly round and round the bowels; over this, and to keep it in its place, and to keep in the moisture, put on a _dry_ flannel bandage, four yards long and four inches wide.
Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children Pye Henry Chavasse 1844
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I. iii.77 (152,5) [It's dry, sir] What is the jest of _dry hand_, I know not any better than Sir Andrew.
Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies Samuel Johnson 1746
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TioRMAiGHiM, to dry up, to make dry» no go tirmaigheadh no. huifgeadha suas 6n ttalamh, until the waters were dried up fromoflF the Earth.
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sharshar lol .. where got normal ppl ask such question wan .. if he askin about applying conditioner i understand la .. cos conditioner not supposed to touch scalp .. but shampoo!??? shampoo + conditioner~~ wipe dry dry abit~ put cream. blow dry~ style
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SANCHEZ (voice-over): If ever there's been an appropriate use of the term dry run, this is it.
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SANCHEZ: If ever there's been an appropriate use of the term dry run, this is it.
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ANNIE JACOBSON, AUTHOR, "TERROR IN THE SKIES": Well, you know, I like your use of the term dry run, and, of course, the president used that term over the weekend.
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It was simply squeezing the title dry of all poetic suggestions; and it would have been quite as appropriate to change the name of “The Scarlet Letter” to “The Clergyman's Penance,” or to call
The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne Stearns, Frank P 1906
andrew.simone commented on the word dry
Dispite the common conception dry is not the opposite of sweet, oenologically speaking.
December 8, 2006
adoarns commented on the word dry
In medicine, refers to a person who is not wet, in the sense that they're not fluid-overloaded, and can also refer to the lungs that don't sound overloaded. "Mr Charles had some trouble breathing, but it wasn't his heart failure, he sounded dry."
Can also mean that they're actually dehydrated. "Guy came in heart taching away, but he looked dry so I gave him a bolus."
January 26, 2008