Word.ws English Dictionary

dry spell

dry spell noun: a drawn-out period where the weather has been dry, for an abnormally long time; shorter and not as severe as a drought.

Noun

dry spell (plural dry spells)

  1. A drawn-out period where the weather has been dry, for an abnormally long time; shorter and not as severe as a drought.
    • Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell / Jimmy Rogers on the Victrola up high1989, Christopher Ward, David Tyson, “Black Velvet”, performed by Alannah Myles
    • The rains, it seemed, were over, and a dry spell was upon them […]1996, M.G. Vassangi, The Book Of Secrets, page 74
  2. (figuratively) A period or time where there is little activity, productivity, low income etc.
    • The first type is of course the dry spell when you can't think of any ideas. The second type is when kids just have a dry spell in writing.1970, Gabriel H. L. Jacobs, When children think, page 31
  3. (figuratively) A period of time without sexual intercourse.
    • There's no telling when the serial dating bug can strike. You may be just getting out of a serious relationship, marriage, or long dry spell. But one thing's for certain: when it does it can become a really hard habit to break.2007, Elina Furman, Kiss and Run, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 87

dry spell meaning in Tamil

dry spell in Tamil

வறட்சிக் காலம்

Forms of dry spell

pluraldry spells

Origin of dry spell

Originated around 1885–1890, from dry + spell (“a period of time”). Compare cold spell.

Words formed from dry spell

Questions about dry spell

What does dry spell mean?
Dry spell means a drawn-out period where the weather has been dry, for an abnormally long time; shorter and not as severe as a drought.
What is dry spell in Tamil?
Dry spell in Tamil is வறட்சிக் காலம். See Dry spell meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is dry spell?
Dry spell is a noun.
What is the plural of dry spell?
The plural of dry spell is dry spells.

Words near dry spell in the dictionary

  1. dry snitch
  2. dry snitched
  3. dry snitches
  4. dry snitching
  5. dry socket
  6. dry spell
  7. dry speller
  8. dry spellers
  9. dry spells
  10. dry sprinkler
  11. dry sprinklers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dry spell (page history and authors); dry spell (Tamil 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-dry spell.wav.

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