Dry /(drī)/

Dry

a.
  1. Free from moisture; having little humidity or none; arid; not wet or moist; deficient in the natural or normal supply of moisture, as rain or fluid of any kind; -- said especially: (a) Of the weather: Free from rain or mist.
    The weather, we agreed, was too dry for the season.
  2. Of vegetable matter: Free from juices or sap; not succulent; not green; as, dry wood or hay.
    Give the dry fool drink.
  3. Of the eyes: Not shedding tears.
    Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly.
  4. Of certain morbid conditions, in which there is entire or comparative absence of moisture; as, dry gangrene; dry catarrh. (Med.)
  5. Destitute of that which interests or amuses; barren; unembellished; jejune; plain.
    These epistles will become less dry, more susceptible of ornament.
  6. Characterized by a quality somewhat severe, grave, or hard; hence, sharp; keen; shrewd; quaint; as, a dry tone or manner; dry wit.
    He was rather a dry, shrewd kind of body.
  7. Exhibiting a sharp, frigid preciseness of execution, or the want of a delicate contour in form, and of easy transition in coloring. (Fine Arts)
    The scientific man must keep his feelings under stern control, lest they obtrude into his researches, and color the dry light in which alone science desires to see its objects.
    — J. C. Shairp.

Dry

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Dried; p. pr. & vb. n. Drying

  1. To make dry; to free from water, or from moisture of any kind, and by any means; to exsiccate; as, to dry the eyes; to dry one's tears; the wind dries the earth; to dry a wet cloth; to dry hay.
    Their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
    — Is. v. 13.
    The water of the sea, which formerly covered it, was in time exhaled and dried up by the sun.
    Their sources of revenue were dried up.
    — Jowett (Thucyd. )

Dry

v. i.
  1. To grow dry; to become free from wetness, moisture, or juice; as, the road dries rapidly.
  2. To evaporate wholly; to be exhaled; -- said of moisture, or a liquid; -- sometimes with up; as, the stream dries, or dries up.
  3. To shrivel or wither; to lose vitality.
    And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.