Wiktionary

dry up

English

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Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) To become dry (often of weather); to lose water.
    Synonyms: desiccate; dehydrate
    Hypernym: dry (sometimes synonymous)
    Coordinate term: dry out (sometimes synonymous)
    I'll go shopping when it dries up.
    Last summer the lake completely dried up.
  2. (transitive) To cause to become dry.
    Synonyms: desiccate; dehydrate
    Hypernym: dry (sometimes synonymous)
    Coordinate term: dry out (sometimes synonymous)
    The heatwave dried up all the rivers.
  3. (intransitive, transitive, intransitive) To manually dry dishes and utensils.
    Synonyms: dry, wipe up (British)
    I'll dry up if you wash up.
  4. (transitive) To deprive someone of (something vital).
    Coordinate terms: wipe out, ruin, tank
    The bankruptcy rumor dried up his sales.
  5. (intransitive) To gradually decrease and eventually cease.
    Synonym: wither away
    When our money dried up, we had to get proper jobs.
    After the stock market crash, the easy financing dried up.
    • 2008, Adele, First Love:
      This love has dried up and stayed behind
  6. (intransitive) To stop talking because one has forgotten what one was going to say.
    Coordinate terms: shut up; freeze up
    This surprised me so much that I dried up for a moment.
    1. (of an actor) To forget one's lines.
  7. (1930s US slang) To stop talking or drop a topic.
    Synonyms: shut up, clam up; see also Thesaurus:be quiet
    Oh, dry up, you old fuddy-duddy!
    • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 168:
      "Oh, dry up,' said Arnold morosely.

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