dry off

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To make dry.
2. (intransitive) To become dry.
   • Drying off after the day of surfing in the afternoon summer sun of New Zealand, they remarked to each other how ironic their trip had been so far.1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer
   • The weather was atrocious (driving rain, strong wind, bone-chilling cold), but that didn't prevent us from getting out of our car, and walking over to the lighthouse there.[…]
     After taking some time to dry off while having a seafood lunch at the nearby Fuchi (Fuji) Fishing Harbor 富基漁港, we continued...2008 February 9, Kaminoge, “Welcoming in the Year of the Rat in Tansui and Hokutō Onsen 子年の旅行：淡水、北投温泉”, in A Curmudgeon Abroad (Blog), archived from the original on 18 Mar 2023
3. (transitive) To cease milking a cow in preparation for calving.
   • In an early study with cows producing very little milk at drying off, new infection rates were about equal whether cows were dried off abruptly or after a period of intermittent milking.1986, Eberhart, R. J., “Management of Dry Cows to Reduce Mastitis”, in Journal of Dairy Science, volume 69, number 6, →DOI, pages 1721-1732
   • Thus, revenue from milk yield before dry-off is higher for cows that are abruptly dried off.2020 September 24, Pornpamol Pattamanont, Marcos Marcondes, Albert De Vries, “Advantages and Disadvantages of Various Dry-off Methods for Dairy Cows”, in edis.ifas.ufl.edu, archived from the original...