Word.ws English Dictionary

dry run

dry run noun: a practice or rehearsal; especially, one that goes through all the motions of a physical process but without the raw material or workpiece present.

Noun

dry run (plural dry runs)

  1. (idiomatic) A practice or rehearsal; especially, one that goes through all the motions of a physical process but without the raw material or workpiece present.
    • They did a dry run of the demonstration before showing it to the CEO.
    • When the dry run mode of a machine tool control is on, the machine can move rapidly because it is cutting only air, not metal. The operator can do a dry run and verify that the motions look correct.
    Synonyms:
    dummy run

dry run meaning in Tamil, Bengali and Indonesian

dry run in Tamil

வெள்ளோட்டம்

dry run in Bengali

অনুশীলন, মহড়া

dry run in Indonesian

practice; rehearsal
gladi

Examples of dry run in a sentence

  • He didn't exactly say so, but it was plain that he felt he had interrupted some kind of dry run—a training exercise for a crime in the planning.1970, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, chapter 19, in The Changeling, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum, →OCLC; republished Guildford, Surrey: The Lutterworth...
  • This way I can make a dry run at putting together my contributions each mailing without worrying about having to meet minac.2001 October, Warren Harris, “Just who is this guy anyway?”, in Back Numbers, number 1, page 1:

Synonyms of dry run

Forms of dry run

pluraldry runs
alternative formdry-run

Origin of dry run

From dry (“impotent; harmless”) + run. First attested in print in 1941, but apparently much older in spoken English.

Questions about dry run

What does dry run mean?
Dry run means a practice or rehearsal; especially, one that goes through all the motions of a physical process but without the raw material or workpiece present.
What is dry run in Tamil?
Dry run in Tamil is வெள்ளோட்டம். See Dry run meaning in Tamil.
How do you use dry run in a sentence?
He didn't exactly say so, but it was plain that he felt he had interrupted some kind of dry run—a training exercise for a crime in the planning.
What part of speech is dry run?
Dry run is a noun.
What is the plural of dry run?
The plural of dry run is dry runs.

Words near dry run in the dictionary

  1. dry rent
  2. dry rents
  3. dry riser
  4. dry risers
  5. dry rot
  6. dry run
  7. dry runs
  8. dry sausage
  9. dry sausages
  10. dry season
  11. dry seasons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dry run (page history and authors); dry run (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dry run (Bengali Wiktionary) (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-au-dry run.ogg.

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