keep the powder dry
keep the powder dry is the alternative form of keep one's powder dry.
Meaning of keep one's powder dry
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
Forms of keep the powder dry
| third-person singular present | keeps the powder dry |
|---|---|
| present participle | keeping the powder dry |
| past participle | kept the powder dry |
| past | kept the powder dry |
Questions about keep the powder dry
- What is keep the powder dry the alternative form of?
- Keep the powder dry is the alternative form of keep one's powder dry.
Words near keep the powder dry in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: keep the powder dry (page history and authors); 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 the powder dry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keep_the_powder_dry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.