Wiktionary

dry

See also: Dry and DRY

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

  • enPR: drī, IPA(key): /dɹaɪ/, /dʒɹaɪ/
  • Audio (US)
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  • Audio (AU)
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  • Audio
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  • Rhymes: -aɪ

EtymologyEdit

Adjective and noun from Middle English drye, dryge, drüȝe, from Old English drȳġe (“dry; parched, withered”), from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz, *draugiz (“dry, hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“to strengthen; become hard”), from *dʰer- (“to hold, support”).

Cognate with Scots dry, drey (“dry”), North Frisian drüg, driig, Saterland Frisian druuch (“dry”), West Frisian droech (“dry”), Dutch droog (“dry”), Low German dröög (“dry”), German dröge (“dull”), Icelandic draugur (“a dry log”). Related also to German trocken (“dry”), West Frisian drege (“long-lasting”), Danish drøj (“tough”), Swedish dryg (“lasting, hard”), Icelandic drjúgur (“ample, long”), Latin firmus (“strong, firm, stable, durable”). See also drought, drain, dree.

Verb from Middle English drien, from Old English drȳġan (“to dry”), from Proto-West Germanic *drūgijan, from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz (“hard, desiccated, dry”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“strong, hard, solid”).

Alternative formsEdit

AdjectiveEdit

dry (comparative drier or dryer, superlative driest or dryest)

  1. Free from or lacking moisture.
    This towel's dry. Could you wet it and cover the chicken so it doesn't go dry as it cooks?
    • 1716 March 16, Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 22. Monday, March 5. [1716.] [Julian calendar]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, OCLC 1056445272:
      The weather, […] we […] both agreed, was too dry for the season.
    • 1856-1858, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip II:
      Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly.
  2. Unable to produce a liquid, as water, (petrochemistry) oil, or (farming) milk.
    This well is as dry as that cow.
  3. (masonry) Built without or lacking mortar.
    • 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, p. 241:
      […] already the gate was blocked with a wall of squared stones laid dry, but very thick and very high, across the opening.
  4. (chemistry) Anhydrous: free from or lacking water in any state, regardless of the presence of other liquids.
    Dry alcohol is 200 proof.
  5. (figuratively) Athirst, eager.
    • 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene ii]:
      Prospero: […] Confederates / (ſo drie he was for Sway) with King of Naples / To giue him Annuall tribute, doe him homage / Subiect his Coronet, to his Crowne and bend / The Dukedom yet vnbow'd (alas poore Millaine) / To moſt ignoble ſtooping.
  6. Free from or lacking alcohol or alcoholic beverages.
    Of course it's a dry house. He was an alcoholic but he's been dry for almost a year now.
  7. (law) Describing an area where sales of alcoholic or strong alcoholic beverages are banned.
    You'll have to drive out of this dry county to find any liquor.
  8. Free from or lacking embellishment or sweetness, particularly:
    1. (wine and other alcoholic beverages, ginger ale) Low in sugar; lacking sugar; unsweetened.
      Proper martinis are made with London dry gin and dry vermouth.
    2. (humor) Amusing without showing amusement.
      Steven Wright has a deadpan delivery, Norm Macdonald has a dry sense of humor, and Oscar Wilde had a dry wit.
    3. Lacking interest, boring.
      A dry lecture may require the professor to bring a watergun in order to keep the students' attention.
    4. (fine arts) Exhibiting precise execution lacking delicate contours or soft transitions of color.
  9. (aviation) Not using afterburners or water injection for increased thrust.
    This fighter jet's engine has a maximum dry thrust of 200 kilonewtons.
  10. (sciences, somewhat derogatory) Involving computations rather than work with biological or chemical matter.
  11. (of a sound recording) Free from applied audio effects (especially reverb).
  12. Without a usual complement or consummation; impotent.
    never dry fire a bow; dry humping her girlfriend; making a dry run
    • 1992, Dwight R. Schuh, Bowhunter's Encyclopedia, Stackpole Books (→ISBN), page 81:
      When you shoot a bow, the arrow absorbs a high percentage of the energy released by the limbs. If you dry fire a bow (shoot it with no arrow on the string), the bow itself absorbs all the energy, […]
    • 2015, Naoko Takei Moore, Kyle Connaughton, Donabe: Classic and Modern Japanese Clay Pot Cooking, Ten Speed Press (→ISBN), page 8:
      Because some recipes require specific techniques such as high-intensity dry heating (heating while the pot is empty or heating with little or no fluid inside), read the manufacturer's instructions to ensure your vessel can handle such cooking […]
    1. Of a bite from an animal: not containing the usual venom.
  13. (Christianity) Of a mass, service, or rite: involving neither consecration nor communion.

SynonymsEdit

AntonymsEdit

  • (free from liquid or moisture): See Thesaurus:wet
  • (abstinent from alcohol): wet
  • (not using afterburners or water injection): wet
  • (of a scientist or lab: doing computation): wet

Derived termsEdit

Terms derived from dry (adjective)

DescendantsEdit

  • Sranan Tongo: drei

TranslationsEdit

NounEdit

dry (plural drys or dries)

  1. The process by which something is dried.
    This towel is still damp: I think it needs another dry.
  2. (US) A prohibitionist (of alcoholic beverages).
    • c. 1952-1996, Noah S. Sweat, quoted in 1996
      The drys were as unhappy with the second part of the speech as the wets were with the first half.
  3. An area with little or no rain, or sheltered from it.
    Come under my umbrella and keep in the dry.
  4. (chiefly Australia, with "the") The dry season.
    • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943, Chapter VII, page 91, [1]
      […] one was sodden to the bone and mildewed to the marrow and moved to pray […] for that which formerly he had cursed—the Dry! the good old Dry—when the grasses yellowed, browned, dried to tinder, burst into spontaneous flame— […]
    • 2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo 2012, p. 169:
      [T]he spring-fed river systems. Not the useless little tributary jutting off into a mud hole at the end of the Dry.
  5. (Australia) An area of waterless country.
  6. Unsweetened ginger ale; dry ginger
    • 1968, Bee Gees, "Indian Gin And Whiskey Dry", Idea(album) [2].
      All day, all night you feel as if the Earth could fly/Three more all for fine Indian Gin and whiskey dry.
    • 2018 May 2, pyatts, Tripadvisor‎[3]:
      Can you buy dry ginger in Croatia? If not what is an alternative?
    • 2021 July 26, cub_beer, eBay‎[4]:
      Black Douglas Blended Scotch and Dry Case 24 x 375mL Cans (Title).
  7. (Britain, UK politics) A radical or hard-line Conservative; especially, one who supported the policies of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
    Antonym: wet

VerbEdit

dry (third-person singular simple present dries, present participle drying, simple past and past participle dried)

  1. (intransitive) To lose moisture.
    The clothes dried on the line.
  2. (transitive) To remove moisture from.
    Devin dried her eyes with a handkerchief.
  3. (obsolete, intransitive) To be thirsty.
    • c. 1390, William Langland, Piers Plowman, I:
      And drynke whan þow dryest · ac do nouȝt out of resoun.
  4. (transitive, figuratively) To exhaust; to cause to run dry.
  5. (intransitive, informal) For an actor to forget his or her lines while performing.
    • 1986, Richard Collier, Make-believe: The Magic of International Theatre (page 146)
      An actor never stumbled over his lines, he “fluffed”; he never forgot his dialogue, he “dried.”
    • 2006, Michael Dobson, Performing Shakespeare's Tragedies Today (page 126)
      In one of the previews I dried (lost my lines) in my opening scene, 1.4, and had to improvise.

ConjugationEdit

conjugation of dry
infinitive dry
present participle drying
past participle dried
simple progressive perfect perfect progressive
present I dry we dry I am drying we are drying I have dried we have dried I have been drying we have been drying
you dry you dry you are drying you are drying you have dried you have dried you have been drying you have been drying
he drys they dry he is drying they are drying he has dried they have dried he has been drying they have been drying
past I dried we dried I was drying we were drying I had dried we had dried I had been drying we had been drying
you dried you dried you were drying you were drying you had dried you had dried you had been drying you had been drying
he dried they dried he was drying they were drying he had dried they had dried he had been drying they had been drying
future I will dry we will dry I will be drying we will be drying I will have dried we will have dried I will have been drying we will have been drying
you will dry you will dry you will be drying you will be drying you will have dried you will have dried you will have been drying you will have been drying
he will dry they will dry he will be drying they will be drying he will have dried they will have dried he will have been drying they will have been drying
conditional I would dry we would dry I would be drying we would be drying I would have dried we would have dried I would have been drying we would have been drying
you would dry you would dry you would be drying you would be drying you would have dried you would have dried you would have been drying you would have been drying
he would dry they would dry he would be drying they would be drying he would have dried they would have dried he would have been drying they would have been drying
imperative dry

Derived termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See alsoEdit

AnagramsEdit

AlbanianEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Proto-Albanian *drūna, from the same root as dru. Cognate to Sanskrit द्रुणा (druṇā, “bow”), Persian درونه‎ (“rainbow”).[1]

NounEdit

dry m (indefinite plural dryna, definite singular dryni, definite plural drynat)

  1. lock, bolt

DeclensionEdit

declension of dry
indefinite forms
(trajta të pashquara) 		definite forms
(trajta të shquara)
singular
(numri njëjës) 		plural
(numri shumës) 		singular
(numri njëjës) 		plural
(numri shumës)
nominative
(emërore) 		dry dryna dryni drynat
accusative
(kallëzore) 		dry dryna drynin drynat
genitive
(gjinore)
(i/e/të/së) 		dryni drynave drynit drynavet
dative
(dhanore) 		dryni drynave drynit drynavet
ablative
(rrjedhore) 		dryni drynash drynit drynavet

Related termsEdit

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ Orel, Vladimir (1998), “dry”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden, Boston, Cologne: Brill, →ISBN, page 77

Middle EnglishEdit

AdjectiveEdit

dry

  1. Alternative form of drye

Old EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from a Brythonic language, from Proto-Brythonic *drüw, from Proto-Celtic *druwits (“druid”).

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

drȳ m (nominative plural drȳas)

  1. a sorcerer or magician
    Hi woldon forbærnan ðone dry. ― They would burn the sorceror. (Ælfric’s Homilies, volume 1.)

Derived termsEdit

DescendantsEdit

WelshEdit

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

dry

  1. Soft mutation of try.

MutationEdit

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
try dry nhry thry
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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