dry up

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To become dry (often of weather); to lose water.
   • I'll go shopping when it dries up.
   • Last summer the lake completely dried up.

   Synonyms:

   desiccate, dehydrate

2. (transitive) To cause to become dry.
   • The heatwave dried up all the rivers.

   Synonyms:

   desiccate, dehydrate

3. (ambitransitive, intransitive) To manually dry dishes and utensils.
   • I'll dry up if you wash up.

   Synonyms:

   dry, wipe up

4. (transitive) To deprive someone of (something vital).
   • The bankruptcy rumor dried up his sales.
5. (intransitive) To gradually decrease and eventually cease.
   • When our money dried up, we had to get proper jobs.
   • After the stock market crash, the easy financing dried up.

   Synonyms:

   wither away

6. (intransitive) To stop talking because one has forgotten what one was going to say.
   • This surprised me so much that I dried up for a moment.
   • “Well, Atticus, I was just sayin‘ to Mr. Cunningham that entailments are bad an’ all that, but you said not to worry, it takes a long time sometimes… that you all’d ride it out together…” I was slowly drying up, wondering what idiocy I had committed.1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC
   1. (intransitive) To forget one's lines.
7. (1930s US slang) To stop talking or drop a topic.
   • Oh, dry up, you old fuddy-duddy!
   • "Oh, dry up,' said Arnold morosely.1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 168

   Synonyms:

   shut up, clam up