dry up

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dry up

verb dries up · drying up · dried up

intransitive To become dry (often of weather); to lose water. I'll go shopping when it dries up.
Similar: desiccate, dehydrate
transitive To cause to become dry. The heatwave dried up all the rivers.
Similar: desiccate, dehydrate
ambitransitive, intransitive To manually dry dishes and utensils. I'll dry up if you wash up.
Similar: dry, wipe up
transitive To deprive someone of (something vital). The bankruptcy rumor dried up his sales.
intransitive To gradually decrease and eventually cease. When our money dried up, we had to get proper jobs.
Similar: wither away
intransitive To stop talking because one has forgotten what one was going to say. This surprised me so much that I dried up for a moment.
intransitive, of an actor To forget one's lines.
To stop talking or drop a topic. Oh, dry up, you old fuddy-duddy!
Similar: shut up, clam up

Translations

Every language

verb to become dry

Deutsch	austrocknen, vertrocknen, verdorren, versiegen
Română	se usca

verb to cause to become dry

Deutsch	austrocknen, trockenlegen
Română	usca

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MLA

"dry up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/dry%20up. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

dry up. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/dry%20up

Chicago

"dry up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/dry%20up.

BibTeX

@misc{dry_up_2026,
  title = {dry up},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/dry%20up},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}