keep one's powder dry
keep one's powder dry verb: to hold back on action until a future time; to save one's resources in case of emergency.
Verb
keep one's powder dry (third-person singular simple present keeps one's powder dry, present participle keeping one's powder dry, simple past and past participle kept one's powder dry)
- To hold back on action until a future time; to save one's resources in case of emergency.
- […]events now happening, which, beyond almost any set of circumstances which have arisen in our recent history, impose the necessity on Great Britain, at all events, of keeping her powder dry, and of keeping her resources in steadfast charge.1904, John Morley, Hansard
- He’d for the most part refrained from any dramatic concurrences or dissents—as though keeping his powder dry for Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the biggest religious-liberty decision in years.2014 July 1, Noah Feldman, “Alito's Day in Court”, in BloombergView, archived from the original on 25 Aug 2014
Forms of keep one's powder dry
| third-person singular present | keeps one's powder dry |
|---|---|
| present participle | keeping one's powder dry |
| past participle | kept one's powder dry |
| past | kept one's powder dry |
| alternative form | keep the powder dry |
Origin of keep one's powder dry
From the maxim trust in God and keep your powder dry, attributed to English statesman Oliver Cromwell; in the days of muskets, soldiers needed to keep their bags of gunpowder dry so they could load their guns at short notice.
Questions about keep one's powder dry
- What does keep one's powder dry mean?
- Keep one's powder dry means to hold back on action until a future time; to save one's resources in case of emergency.
- What part of speech is keep one's powder dry?
- Keep one's powder dry is a verb.
- What is the past tense of keep one's powder dry?
- The past tense of keep one's powder dry is kept one's powder dry.
Words near keep one's powder dry in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: keep one's powder dry (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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Cite this entry: “keep one's powder dry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keep_one%27s_powder_dry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.