drying 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
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