Dry vs. Exsiccate

Dryadjective

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?’;

Exsiccateverb

(transitive) To dry, to desiccate, to dehydrate.

Dryadjective

Unable to produce a liquid, as water, (Petrochemistry) oil, or (farming) milk.

‘This well is as dry as that cow.’;

Exsiccateverb

To exhaust or evaporate moisture from; to dry up.

Dryadjective

(masonry) Built without or lacking mortar.

Dryadjective

(chemistry) Anhydrous: free from or lacking water in any state, regardless of the presence of other liquids.

‘Dry alcohol is 200 proof.’;

Dryadjective

(figurative) Athirst, eager.

Dryadjective

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.’;

Dryadjective

(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.’;

Dryadjective

Free from or lacking embellishment or sweetness, particularly:

Dryadjective

Low in sugar; lacking sugar; unsweetened.

‘Proper martinis are made with London dry gin and dry vermouth.’;

Dryadjective

(humor) Amusing without showing amusement.

‘Steven Wright has a Norm Macdonald has a dry Oscar Wilde had a dry wit.’;

Dryadjective

Lacking interest, boring.

‘A dry lecture may require the professor to bring a watergun in order to keep the students' attention.’;

Dryadjective

(fine arts) Exhibiting precise execution lacking delicate contours or soft transitions of color.

Dryadjective

Involving computations rather than work with biological or chemical matter.

Dryadjective

(of a sound recording) Free from applied audio effects.

Dryadjective

Without a usual complement or consummation; impotently. improve this

‘never dry fire a bow; dry humping her girlfriend; making a dry run’;

Dryadjective

(Christianity) Of a mass, service, or rite: involving neither consecration nor communion.

Drynoun

The process by which something is dried.

‘This towel is still damp: I think it needs another dry.’;

Drynoun

(US) A prohibitionist (of alcoholic beverages).

Drynoun

The dry season.

Drynoun

(Australia) An area of waterless country.

Drynoun

A radical or hard-line Conservative; especially, one who supported the policies of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

Dryverb

(intransitive) To lose moisture.

‘The clothes dried on the line.’;

Dryverb

(transitive) To remove moisture from.

‘Devin dried her eyes with a handkerchief.’;

Dryverb

To be thirsty.

Dryadjective

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.’;

Dryadjective

Of vegetable matter: Free from juices or sap; not succulent; not green; as, dry wood or hay.

‘Give the dry fool drink.’;

Dryadjective

Destitute of that which interests or amuses; barren; unembellished; jejune; plain.

‘These epistles will become less dry, more susceptible of ornament.’;

Dryadjective

Of the eyes: Not shedding tears.

‘Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly.’;

Dryadjective

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.’;

Dryadjective

Of certain morbid conditions, in which there is entire or comparative absence of moisture; as, dry gangrene; dry catarrh.

Dryadjective

Exhibiting a sharp, frigid preciseness of execution, or the want of a delicate contour in form, and of easy transition in coloring.

‘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.’;

Dryverb

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.’; ‘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.’;

Dryverb

To grow dry; to become free from wetness, moisture, or juice; as, the road dries rapidly.

Dryverb

To evaporate wholly; to be exhaled; - said of moisture, or a liquid; - sometimes with up; as, the stream dries, or dries up.

Dryverb

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.’;

Drynoun

a reformer who opposes the use of intoxicating beverages

Dryverb

remove the moisture from and make dry;

‘dry clothes’; ‘dry hair’;

Dryverb

become dry or drier;

‘The laundry dries in the sun’;

Dryadjective

free from liquid or moisture; lacking natural or normal moisture or depleted of water; or no longer wet;

‘dry land’; ‘dry clothes’; ‘a dry climate’; ‘dry splintery boards’; ‘a dry river bed’; ‘the paint is dry’;

Dryadjective

humorously sarcastic or mocking;

‘dry humor’; ‘an ironic remark often conveys an intended meaning obliquely’; ‘an ironic novel’; ‘an ironical smile’; ‘with a wry Scottish wit’;

Dryadjective

opposed to or prohibiting the production and sale of alcoholic beverages;

‘the dry vote led by preachers and bootleggers’; ‘a dry state’;

Dryadjective

not producing milk;

‘a dry cow’;

Dryadjective

(of wines) not sweet because of decomposition of sugar during fermentation;

‘a dry white burgundy’;

Dryadjective

without a mucous or watery discharge;

‘a dry cough’; ‘that rare thing in the wintertime; a small child with a dry nose’;

Dryadjective

not shedding tears;

‘dry sobs’; ‘with dry eyes’;

Dryadjective

lacking interest or stimulation; dull and lifeless;

‘a dry book’; ‘a dry lecture filled with trivial details’; ‘dull and juiceless as only book knowledge can be when it is unrelated to...life’;

Dryadjective

used of solid substances in contrast with liquid ones;

‘dry weight’;

Dryadjective

unproductive especially of the expected results;

‘a dry run’; ‘a mind dry of new ideas’;

Dryadjective

having no adornment or coloration;

‘dry facts’; ‘rattled off the facts in a dry mechanical manner’;

Dryadjective

(of food) eaten without a spread or sauce or other garnish;

‘dry toast’; ‘dry meat’;

Dryadjective

suffering from fluid deprivation;

‘his mouth was dry’;

Dryadjective

having a large proportion of strong liquor;

‘a very dry martini is almost straight gin’;

Dryadjective

lacking warmth or emotional involvement;

‘a dry greeting’; ‘a dry reading of the lines’; ‘a dry critique’;

Dryadjective

practicing complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages;

‘he's been dry for ten years’; ‘no thank you; I happen to be teetotal’;

Dryadjective

free from moisture or liquid; not wet or moist

‘he wiped the table dry with his shirt’; ‘the jacket kept me warm and dry’;

Dryadjective

(of paint, ink, etc.) having lost all wetness or moisture over a period of time

‘wait until the paint is dry’;

Dryadjective

for use without liquid

‘the conversion of dry latrines into the flushing type’;

Dryadjective

with little or no rainfall or humidity

‘the West Coast has had two dry winters in a row’;

Dryadjective

(of a river, lake, or stream) empty of water as a result of lack of rainfall

‘the river is always dry at this time of year’;

Dryadjective

(of a source) not yielding a supply of water or oil

‘a dry well’;

Dryadjective

thirsty or thirst-making

‘working in the hot sun is making me dry’;

Dryadjective

(of a cow or other domestic animal) no longer producing milk

‘the rye has been strip-grazed by dry cows’; ‘the cows went dry in the wintertime’;

Dryadjective

without grease or other moisturizer or lubricator

‘cream conditioners for dry hair’;

Dryadjective

(of bread or toast) without butter or other spreads

‘only dry bread and water’;

Dryadjective

(of information, writing, etc.) dully factual

‘the dry facts of the matter’;

Dryadjective

unemotional, undemonstrative, or impassive

‘it transformed him from a dry administrator into the people's hero’;

Dryadjective

(of a joke or sense of humour) subtle and expressed in a matter-of-fact way

‘he delighted his friends with a dry, covert sense of humour’;

Dryadjective

prohibiting the sale or consumption of alcoholic drink

‘the country is strictly dry, in accordance with Islamic law’;

Dryadjective

(of a person) no longer addicted to or drinking alcohol

‘I heard much talk about how sobriety was more than staying straight or dry’;

Dryadjective

(of an alcoholic drink) not sweet

‘a dry, medium-bodied red wine’;

Dryadjective

relating to political ‘dries’; rigidly monetarist.

Dryverb

become dry

‘waiting for the paint to dry’; ‘pools are left as the rivers dry up’; ‘do not let the soil dry out’;

Dryverb

cause to become dry

‘they had washed and dried their hair’;

Dryverb

wipe tears from (the eyes)

‘she dried her eyes and blew her nose’;

Dryverb

wipe dishes dry with a cloth after they have been washed

‘‘I'll wash, Sara, you dry’’;

Dryverb

preserve by allowing or encouraging evaporation of moisture from

‘dried flowers’;

Dryverb

forget one's lines

‘a colleague of mine once dried in the middle of a scene’;

Drynoun

the process or an instance of drying.

Drynoun

a dry or covered place.

Drynoun

the dry season

‘the grass was yellowing and the dry had started’;

Drynoun

a tract of waterless country

‘the forty-mile dry’;

Drynoun

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

Drynoun

a person in favour of the prohibition of alcohol

‘evangelical dries had seen to it that the nearest bottle of whiskey was miles away’;