Word.ws English Dictionary

dry

/ˈdɹaɪ̯/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈdɹɑɪ̯/

dry adjective: free from or lacking moisture.

Adjective (1)

dry (comparative drier or dryer, superlative driest or dryest)

  1. Free from or lacking moisture.
    • This towel's dry. Could you wet it and cover the chicken so it doesn't go dry as it cooks?
    • The weather, […] we […] both agreed, was too dry for the season.2026 October 12 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 22. Monday, March 5. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob...
  2. Unable to produce a liquid, as water, (petrochemistry) oil, or (agriculture) milk.
    • This well is as dry as that cow.
  3. Built without or lacking mortar.
    • [A]lready the gate was blocked with a wall of squared stones laid dry, but very thick and very high, across the opening.1937 September 21, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “The Gathering of the Clouds”, in The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again, revised edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published February 1966...
  4. Anhydrous: free from or lacking water in any state, regardless of the presence of other liquids.
    • Dry alcohol is 200 proof.
  5. (figuratively) Athirst, eager.
    • Prospero:[…]Confederates / (ſo drie he was for Sway) with King of Naples / To giue him Annuall tribute, doe him homage / Subiect his Coronet, to his Crowne and bend / The Dukedom yet vnbow'd (alas poore Millaine) / To moſt ignoble ſtooping.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
  6. Free from or lacking alcohol or alcoholic beverages.
    • Of course it's a dry house. He was an alcoholic but he's been dry for almost a year now.
    • Ol. Go too, y'are a dry foole: Ile no more of you: besides you grow dis-honest.
    • Clo. Two faults Madona, that drinke & good counsell wil amend: for giue the dry foole drink, then is the foole not dry[…]c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    Synonyms:
    sober
  7. Describing an area where sales of alcoholic or strong alcoholic beverages are banned.
    • You'll have to drive out of this dry county to find any liquor.
  8. Free from or lacking embellishment or sweetness, particularly
    • These epistles will become less dry, more susceptible of ornament.1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC
  9. (wine and other alcoholic beverages, ginger ale) Low in sugar; lacking sugar; unsweetened.
    • Proper martinis are made with London dry gin and dry vermouth.
    • Fatima Blush: Oh, how reckless of me. I made you all wet.
      James Bond: Yes, but my martini is still dry. My name is James.1983, Lorenzo Semple Jr., Never Say Never Again
  10. (humor) Amusing without showing amusement.
    • Steven Wright has a deadpan delivery, Norm Macdonald has a dry sense of humor, and Oscar Wilde had a dry wit.
  11. Lacking interest, boring.
    • a dry academic discipline turned into a living subject
    • A dry lecture may require the professor to bring a water gun in order to keep the students' attention.
    Antonyms:
    live, living
  12. Of a board or flop: Not permitting the creation of many or of strong hands.
    • Jake was hoping to make something good out of his suited 7-8 hand, but the flop came out dry: 2-5-10 rainbow, and all of the wrong suit!.
Show 8 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (fine arts) Exhibiting precise execution lacking delicate contours or soft transitions of color.
  2. Not using afterburners or water injection for increased thrust.
    • This fighter jet's engine has a maximum dry thrust of 200 kilonewtons.
  3. (derogatory) Involving computations rather than work with biological or chemical matter.
  4. Free from applied audio effects (especially reverb).
  5. Without a usual complement or consummation; impotent.
    • never dry fire a bow
    • dry humping her girlfriend
    1. Of a bite from an animal: not containing the usual venom.
      • dry bite
  6. In a dry spell (e.g., unemployed, slow).
    • Things are dry right now. We're hoping business'll pick up next month.
    • Fa la la la
      Fa la la lee
      Now let me go, my honey oh
      back to Tennessee
      It's beefsteak when I'm workin,
      whiskey when I'm dry, and
      sweet heaven when I die2011, Gillian Welch, “Tennessee”, in The Harrow & the Harvest, performed by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
  7. Of a mass, service, or rite: involving neither consecration nor communion.
  8. (Malaysia, Singapore) Mixed with sauce and not served in a soup.
    • I would have mee tai mak (short, thick noodles), either in soup or dry, with fishballs, pork balls or yong tau foo at this noodles shop near my house.2006 July 30, Teo Pau Lin, quoting Wong Hon Mun, The Straits Times, quoted in Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English, Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings Limited, page L28

Noun

dry (plural drys or dries)

  1. The process by which something is dried.
    • This towel is still damp: I think it needs another dry.
  2. (US) A prohibitionist (of alcoholic beverages).
    • The drys were as unhappy with the second part of the speech as the wets were with the first half.c. 1952-1996, Noah S. Sweat, quoted in 1996
  3. An area with little or no rain, or sheltered from it.
    • Come under my umbrella and keep in the dry.
  4. (Australia, with-definite-article) The dry season.
    • […] one was sodden to the bone and mildewed to the marrow and moved to pray […] for that which formerly he had cursed—the Dry! the good old Dry—when the grasses yellowed, browned, dried to tinder, burst into spontaneous flame— […]1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 91
    • [T]he spring-fed river systems. Not the useless little tributary jutting off into a mud hole at the end of the Dry.2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo, published 2012, page 169
  5. (Australia) An area of waterless country.
  6. Unsweetened ginger ale; dry ginger.
    • All day, all night you feel as if the Earth could fly/Three more all for fine Indian Gin and whiskey dry.1968, Bee Gees, “Indian Gin And Whiskey Dry”, in Idea(album)
    • Can you buy dry ginger in Croatia? If not what is an alternative?2018 May 2, pyatts, Tripadvisor
  7. (UK) A radical or hard-line Conservative; especially, one who supported the policies of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
    Antonyms:
    wet

Verb (1)

dry (third-person singular simple present dries, present participle drying, simple past and past participle dried)

  1. (intransitive) To lose moisture.
    • The clothes dried on the line.
    • The fruit dried in the dehydrator.
    Synonyms:
    dehydrate, desiccate
  2. (transitive) To remove moisture from.
    • Devin dried her eyes with a handkerchief.
    • We dried the fruit in the dehydrator.
    Synonyms:
    dehydrate, desiccate
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To exhaust; to cause to run dry.
    Synonyms:
    dry up
  4. (informal, intransitive) For an actor to forget their lines while performing.
    • An actor never stumbled over his lines, he “fluffed”; he never forgot his dialogue, he “dried.”1986, Richard Collier, Make-believe: The Magic of International Theatre, page 146
    • In one of the previews I dried (lost my lines) in my opening scene, 1.4, and had to improvise.2006, Michael Dobson, Performing Shakespeare's Tragedies Today, page 126

Phrase capitalized: DRY

DRY

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of don't repeat yourself (“software development principle aimed at reducing repetition”).
    • The general principle here is DRY: Don't Repeat Yourself (HTOO). If you duplicate information in two or more places, sooner or later, you'll forget to update one of the copies […]2005, Greg Wilson, Data Crunching: Solve Everyday Problems Using Java, Python, and More

Adjective (2) capitalized: DRY

DRY (comparative DRYer, superlative DRYest)

  1. Of code, having the quality of adhering to the principle of DRY; containing as little repetition as possible.
    Antonyms:
    WET

Verb (2) capitalized: DRY

DRY (third-person singular simple present DRYs, present participle DRYing, simple past and past participle DRYed)

  1. To cause code to become DRY; to remove repetition from code.

Proper noun capitalized: Dry

Dry (plural Drys)

  1. A surname.

dry meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam

dry in Hindi

free from liquid or moisture
सूखा sūkhā

dry in Urdu

free from liquid or moisture
سوکھا sūkhā

dry in Telugu

free from liquid or moisture
పొడి poḍi
to make dry
ఆరబెట్టు ārabeṭṭu
to become dry
ఆరిపోవు āripōvu

dry in Malayalam

free from liquid or moisture
ഉണങ്ങിയ uṇaṅṅiya
free of water in any state
വരണ്ട varaṇṭa
to make dry
ഉണക്കുക uṇakkuka
to become dry
ഉണങ്ങുക uṇaṅṅuka
More languagesFewer languages
dry in Odia
ଶୁଷ୍କ śuṣka
dry in Sanskrit
शुष्क śuṣka, शोषयति śoṣayati
dry in Assamese
শুকান xukan
dry in Nepali
सुक्खा sukkhā, सुख्खा sukhkhā
dry in Tagalog
tuyo, tuyuin, magpatuyo, matuyo
dry in Arabic
جَافّ jāff, ناشف nāšif, جَاف jāf, نَاشِف nāšif
dry in Malay
kering
dry in Indonesian
kering
dry in Persian
خشک xošk
dry in Thai
แห้ง hɛ̂ɛng
dry in Vietnamese
khô, sấy, hong
dry in Myanmar
ခြောက် hkrauk
Kashmiri
ہۆکھ hokh, خۄشِک khọśik

Examples of dry in a sentence

  • dry snitches are as bad as regular snitches
  • Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly.1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III)...
  • And few places in Utah are as tiny or dry as Echo, a jumble of homes squeezed between a freight railroad and stunning red-rock cliffs.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...
  • Evans naturally does not see things in a dry light.1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 2:
  • A loose nocking point is equally dangerous since it may result in what is known as a 'dry release' when the arrow merely falls from a string a few feet away as the bow is shot.1958, Gordon Grimley, The Book of the Bow, page 167:

All 40 example sentences with dry

Synonyms of dry

6 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of dry

Forms of dry

Adjective
comparativedrier
comparativedryer
superlativedriest
superlativedryest
comparativeDRYer
superlativeDRYest
alternative form (obsolete)drie
Noun
pluraldrys
pluraldries
Verb
third-person singular presentdries
present participledrying
past participledried
pastdried
third-person singular presentDRYs
present participleDRYing
past participleDRYed
pastDRYed

Past tense of dry: dried

Plural of dry: drys or dries

Origin of dry

Adjective and noun from Middle English drye, dryge, drüȝe, from Old English drȳġe (“dry; parched, withered”), from Proto-West Germanic *drūgī, *draugī, from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz, *draugiz (“dry, hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“to strengthen; become hard”), from *dʰer- (“to hold, support”). The verb derives from Middle English drien, from Old English drȳġan (“to dry”), from Proto-West Germanic *drūgijan, from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz (“hard, desiccated, dry”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“strong, hard, solid”). cognates and related terms Cognate with Scots dry, drey (“dry”), North Frisian drüg, driig, Saterland Frisian druuch (“dry”), West Frisian droech (“dry”), Dutch droog (“dry”), Low German dröög (“dry”), German dröge (“dull”), Icelandic draugur (“a dry log”). Related also to German trocken (“dry”), West Frisian drege (“long-lasting”), Danish drøj (“tough”), Swedish dryg (“lasting, hard”), Icelandic drjúgur (“ample, long”), Latin firmus (“strong, firm, stable, durable”). See also drought, drain, dree.

Words formed from dry

Phrases with dry

163 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with dry

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dry

What does dry mean?
Dry means free from or lacking moisture.
What is dry in Hindi?
Dry in Hindi is सूखा (sūkhā). See Dry meaning in Hindi.
How do you use dry in a sentence?
dry snitches are as bad as regular snitches
What part of speech is dry?
Dry can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a phrase.
How do you pronounce dry?
Dry is pronounced /ˈdɹaɪ̯/ (UK).

Words near dry in the dictionary

  1. Druzism
  2. druzy
  3. DRV
  4. dRVVT
  5. Drws-y-coed
  6. dry
  7. dry abscess
  8. dry abscesses
  9. dry agent
  10. dry agents
  11. dry as a bone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dry (page history and authors); DRY (page history and authors); Dry (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-dry.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-dry.wav.

Cite this entry: “dry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.