dry up
verb
Simple meaning
To become dry.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dryuhpSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɹaɪˈʌp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Dry up and shrivel due to complete loss of moisture
intransitive
To become dry (often of weather); to lose water.
transitive
To cause to become dry.
intransitive
To stop talking because one has forgotten what one was going to say.
intransitive
To gradually decrease and eventually cease.
1930s US slang
To stop talking or drop a topic.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To become dry (often of weather); to lose water.
Used this way, dry up is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. This sense is used where position and measurement matter — travel, weather and flight — so it reads as factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Geography/travel
- Weather/aviation
- Technical/specialist writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.