drygulch
UK/ˈdɹʌɪɡʌltʃ//ˈdɹaɪ.ɡʌlt͡ʃ/
drygulch verb: to murder; to attack, assault, especially in an ambush.
Verb
drygulch (third-person singular simple present drygulches, present participle drygulching, simple past and past participle drygulched)
- To murder; to attack, assault, especially in an ambush.
- ‘Then one of them got into the car and dry-gulched me.’1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, page 77
- You've delivered yourselves into the hands of capitalists and Christers, and anybody wants to change any of that steps across ’at frontera, they're drygulched on the spot—though I'm sure you'd know how to avoid that, Dwayne.2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, pages 722–3
Forms of drygulch
| third-person singular present | drygulches |
|---|---|
| present participle | drygulching |
| past participle | drygulched |
| past | drygulched |
| alternative form | dry gulch |
| alternative form | dry-gulch |
Origin of drygulch
Because in the American West, outlaws often killed people as they passed through a dry gulch; or because cattle rustlers drove stolen animals off the edge of such a gulch. (ref. John Ayto 1998)
Questions about drygulch
- What does drygulch mean?
- Drygulch means to murder; to attack, assault, especially in an ambush.
- What part of speech is drygulch?
- Drygulch is a verb.
- How do you pronounce drygulch?
- Drygulch is pronounced /ˈdɹʌɪɡʌltʃ/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of drygulch?
- The past tense of drygulch is drygulched.
Words near drygulch in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: drygulch (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-drygulch.ogg.
Cite this entry: “drygulch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drygulch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.