dry
/ˈdɹaɪ̯/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.74 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Unable to produce a liquid, as water, (petrochemistry) oil, or (agriculture) milk.
adj
Anhydrous: free from or lacking water in any state, regardless of the presence of other liquids.
adj
Free from or lacking embellishment or sweetness, particularly
Example Sentences
- "This towel's dry. Could you wet it and cover the chicken so it doesn't go dry as it cooks?"
- "The weather, […] we […] both agreed, was too dry for the season."
- "The marjorum stood in ruddy and fragrant masses; harebells and campanulas of several kinds, that are cultivated in our gardens, with bells large and clear; crimson pinks; the Michaelmas daisy; a plant with a thin, radiated yellow flower, of the character of an aster; a centaurea of a light purple, handsomer than any English one; a thistle in the dryest places, resembling an eryngo, with a thick, bushy top; mulleins, yellow and white; the wild mignonnette, and the white convolvulus; and clematis festooning the bushes, recalled the flowery fields and lanes of England, and yet told us that we were not there."
- "Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly."
- "The project poses exceptional challenges, given that Antarctica is the coldest, windiest and driest continent on Earth, as well as the most remote and inaccessible, being almost totally covered by a vast ice sheet."
- "It is one of the first towns in the United States to purposely stall growth for want of water in a new era of megadroughts. But it could be a harbinger of things to come in a hotter, drier West. […] Experts say the smallest towns are especially vulnerable. And few places in Utah are as tiny or dry as Echo, a jumble of homes squeezed between a freight railroad and stunning red-rock cliffs."
Etymology
Adjective and noun from Middle English drye, dryge, drüȝe, from Old English drȳġe (“dry; parched, withered”), from Proto-West Germanic *drūgī, *draugī, from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz, *draugiz (“dry, hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“to strengthen; become hard”), from *dʰer- (“to hold, support”). The verb derives from Middle English drien, from Old English drȳġan (“to dry”), from Proto-West Germanic *drūgijan, from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz (“hard, desiccated, dry”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“strong, hard, solid”). cognates and related terms Cognate with Scots dry, drey (“dry”), North Frisian drüg, driig, Saterland Frisian druuch (“dry”), West Frisian droech (“dry”), Dutch droog (“dry”), Low German dröög (“dry”), German dröge (“dull”), Icelandic draugur (“a dry log”). Related also to German trocken (“dry”), West Frisian drege (“long-lasting”), Danish drøj (“tough”), Swedish dryg (“lasting, hard”), Icelandic drjúgur (“ample, long”), Latin firmus (“strong, firm, stable, durable”). See also drought, drain, dree.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdɹaɪ̯/
- British English: /ˈdɹaɪ̯/
Usage
- Derogatory
- American usage
- Australian usage
- British usage
- Intransitive verb
- Transitive verb
- Informal