Word.ws English Dictionary

run dry

run dry verb: to become dry; to cease to flow with water.

Verb

run dry (third-person singular simple present runs dry, present participle running dry, simple past ran dry, past participle run dry)

  1. (literally) To become dry; to cease to flow with water.
    • Last summer the river ran dry.
  2. (figuratively) To run out; to be fully consumed; to expire.
    • The beer soon ran dry so we cracked open a bottle of wine.
    • I used to write short stories, but these days my inspiration has run dry.

Examples of run dry in a sentence

  • There's nothing where he used to lie / My inspiration has run dry1997, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, Phil Thornalley, “Torn”, in Left of the Middle, performed by Natalie Imbruglia:
  • The move comes amid reports that the manufacturer's order book will run dry in early 2024, due to delays to the £2 billion contract for HS2.2023 September 20, “Network News: Stop Press”, in RAIL, number 992, page 9:

Forms of run dry

third-person singular presentruns dry
present participlerunning dry
pastran dry
past participlerun dry

Questions about run dry

What does run dry mean?
Run dry means to become dry; to cease to flow with water.
How do you use run dry in a sentence?
There's nothing where he used to lie / My inspiration has run dry
What part of speech is run dry?
Run dry is a verb.
What is the past tense of run dry?
The past tense of run dry is ran dry.

Words near run dry in the dictionary

  1. run circles round
  2. run counter
  3. run deep
  4. run down
  5. run down the clock
  6. run dry
  7. run errands
  8. run feast
  9. run feasts
  10. run for cover
  11. run for it

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: run 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: “run dry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/run_dry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.