Dry

How to spell dry

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce dry

What does dry mean?

1. adjectiveFree from moisture or liquid; not wet.
2. verbTo remove the moisture from something or to become free of moisture.

Dry in a sentence

• adjective

  The towels were finally dry after hanging in the sun.

• verb

  Hang the washing outside to dry before the rain returns.

• adjective

  The long summer left the soil cracked and dry.

• verb

  Use a clean cloth to dry the dishes after rinsing them.

Where does dry come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English dryge, meaning 'without moisture' or 'parched', which was related to the Old English verb drugian, 'to dry up'. It shares a common Germanic ancestor with the Dutch droog and the German trocken, all carrying the basic idea of being free of water. Over centuries the spelling settled from forms such as 'drye' into the modern 'dry', with the final 'y' standing in for the long 'i' sound. The figurative senses, such as a 'dry' sense of humour (understated and unsentimental) or a 'dry' speech (dull), grew up in English itself by extension from the literal lack of moisture. The verb sense, meaning to remove moisture, comes from the same root and has existed alongside the adjective since the earliest records.

How the word is built

• dry (single root from Old English dryge: without moisture)