dry upverb

• 1

  To become dry (often of weather); to lose water.

  • I'll go shopping when it dries up.
  • Last summer the lake completely dried up.
• 2

  To cause to become dry.

  • The heatwave dried up all the rivers.
• 3

  To manually dry dishes and utensils.

  • I'll dry up if you wash up.
• 4

  To deprive someone of (something vital).

  • The bankruptcy rumor dried up his sales.
• 5

  To gradually decrease and eventually cease.

  • When our money dried up, we had to get proper jobs.
  • After the stock market crash, the easy financing dried up.
• 6

  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.
  • “Well, Atticus, I was just sayin‘ to Mr. Cunningham that entailments are bad an’ all that, but you said not to worry, it takes a long time sometimes… that you all’d ride it out together…” I was slowly drying up, wondering what idiocy I had committed.
• 7

  To stop talking because one has forgotten what one was going to say.

• 8

  To stop talking or drop a topic.

  • Oh, dry up, you old fuddy-duddy!
  • "Oh, dry up,' said Arnold morosely.