dry

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dry/drʌɪ/

▶adjective (drier, driest)

• 1 free from moisture or liquid.

  ■ not yielding water, oil, or milk: a dry well.

  ■ without grease or other moisturizer or lubricator: dry hair.

• 2 (of information, writing, etc.) dully factual.

  ■ unemotional or undemonstrative.

• 3 (of humour) subtle and expressed in a matter-of-fact way.

• 4 prohibiting the sale or consumption of alcoholic drink.

  ■ no longer drinking alcohol.

• 5 (of wine) not sweet.

▶verb (dries, drying, dried)

• 1 become or make dry.

  ■ (usu. as adj. dried) preserve by evaporating the moisture from: dried milk.

• 2 (dry up) (of a supply or flow) decrease and stop.

• 3 theatrical slang forget one's lines.

  ■ (dry up) informal cease talking.

• 4 (dry out) informal overcome alcoholism.

▶noun (pl. dries or drys)

• 1 (the dry) chiefly Austral. the dry season.

  ■ a tract of waterless country.

• 2 Brit. a Conservative politician (especially in the 1980s) in favour of strict monetarist policies.

• 3 US a person in favour of the prohibition of alcohol.

– phrases
come up dry N. Amer. informal be unsuccessful.

– derivatives
dryish adjective,
dryness noun.

– origin OE drȳge (adj.), drȳgan (v.), of Gmc origin.