dry up

verb

dried up; drying up; dries up

transitive verb

: to cut off the supply of

intransitive verb

1

: to disappear as if by evaporation, draining, or cutting off of a source of supply

2

: to wither or die through gradual loss of vitality

3

: to stop talking

Synonyms

• belt up [British]
• clam up
• dummy up
• hush
• pipe down
• quiet (down)
• shut up

Examples of dry up in a Sentence

sick of her constant complaining, he angrily told her to dry up

Recent Examples on the Web

Under the plan, the federal government will garnish wages from some of those borrowers, pulling money out of their pockets that may otherwise be spent and in turn drying up some economic activity, the experts said. —Max Zahn, ABC News, 22 Apr. 2025

Profits drying up China once served as a haven for global automakers to lower costs and generate enough capital to fund costly innovation projects in the U.S. —Jackie Charniga, USA Today, 17 Apr. 2025

Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera were likely better athletes as young men, and their offensive games dried up long before age 40. —Tony Blengino, Forbes.com, 14 Apr. 2025

The chances kept flowing, but the finishing dried up. —Beren Cross, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Rhymes for dry up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup