English

Verb

dry up ‎(third-person singular simple present dries up, present participle drying up, simple past and past participle dried up)

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

   I'll go shopping when it dries up.

2. (transitive) To cause to become dry.

   A raisin is a dried up grape.

3. (transitive) To deprive someone of (something vital).

   The bankruptcy rumor dried up his sales.

4. (intransitive) To cease to exist; to disappear

   When our money dried up, we had to get proper jobs.

5. (intransitive, transitive) To manually dry dishes

   I'll dry up if you wash up.

6. (intransitive) To stop talking, to forget what one was going to say.

   This surprised me so much that I dried up for a moment.

Usage notes

• dry out refers to losing excess water, while dry up is used for losing constituent water (dessicate)

Anagrams

• purdy