WordWeb Online

1. Remove the moisture from and make dry
   "dry hair"; "dry clothes";
   - dry out
    
2. Become dry or drier
   "The laundry dries in the sun";
   - dry out

1. Free from liquid or moisture; lacking natural or normal moisture or depleted of water; or no longer wet
   "dry land"; "dry clothes"; "a dry climate"; "dry splintery boards"; "a dry river bed"; "the paint is dry"
    
2. Humorously sarcastic or mocking
   "dry humour";
   - ironic, ironical, wry
    
3. Not shedding tears
   "dry sobs"; "with dry eyes"
    
4. Lacking interest or stimulation; dull and lifeless
   "a dry book"; "a dry lecture filled with trivial details";
   - juiceless
    
5. Used of solid substances in contrast with liquid ones
   "dry weight"
    
6. Unproductive especially of the expected results
   "a dry run"; "a mind dry of new ideas"
    
7. Having no adornment or coloration
   "dry facts"; "rattled off the facts in a dry mechanical manner"
    
8. (of food) eaten without a spread, sauce or other garnish
   "dry toast"; "dry meat"
    
9. Having a large proportion of strong liquor
   "a very dry martini is almost straight gin"
    
10. Lacking warmth or emotional involvement
    "a dry greeting"; "a dry reading of the lines"; "a dry critique"
     
11. Practising complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages
    "he's been dry for ten years";
    - teetotal
     
12. Lacking moisture or volatile components
    "dry paint"
     
13. Opposed to or prohibiting the production and sale of alcoholic beverages
    "the dry vote led by preachers and bootleggers"; "a dry state"
     
14. Not producing milk
    "a dry cow"
     
15. (of liquor) having a low residual sugar content because of decomposition of sugar during fermentation
    "a dry white burgundy"; "a dry Bordeaux"
     
16. Without a mucous or watery discharge
    "a dry cough"; "that rare thing in the wintertime; a small child with a dry nose"

1. A reformer who opposes the use of intoxicating beverages
   - prohibitionist

1. Somewhat dry
   "swabbing left the deck semi-dry but still slippery"

See also: adust [archaic], air-dried, air-dry, alcoholic, arid, baked, bone dry, bone-dry, brut, desiccated, dried, dried-out, dried-up, dry-eyed, dry-shod, humorous, humourous [Brit, Cdn, non-standard], kiln-dried, medium-dry, milkless, nonsweet, parched, plain, rainless, scorched, sear, sec, semiarid, sere, shriveled [US], shrivelled [Brit, Cdn], sober, solid, sour, sugarless, sunbaked, tearless, thirsty, unemotional, unexciting, unproductive, unstimulating, unsweet, waterless, wetness, withered

Type of: alter, change, crusader, meliorist, modify, reformer, reformist, social reformer

Antonym: phlegmy, sweet, wet

Encyclopedia: Dry, Richard