Other forms: dried, drying, drier, driest, dries
Dry means with no water in it. Dry clothes, dry ground, a dry summer. It is the plain opposite of wet and one of the first adjectives anybody learns.
The extensions are worth collecting because they are not guessable. Dry humour is delivered without any sign that a joke is being made, and it is a compliment. A dry book is dull. Dry wine has no sweetness. And a dry month, or going dry, means without alcohol. The verb is regular and takes dries, dried, drying — the y-to-i rule. Note dry up, which means both to run out and, in Britain, to dry the washing-up.
1adjectivedryWith no water or liquid in or on it.
“The washing was dry by four o'clock.”
2verbbecomeTo make or become dry.
“Dry your hands before you touch it.”
3adjectivehumourOf humour, delivered without any sign of a joke.
“He has a very dry sense of humour and half of it is missed.”
4adjectivedullDull and lacking interest.
“It is a dry read and worth finishing.”
5adjectivewineOf wine or another drink: not sweet.
“She ordered a glass of dry white wine with the fish.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Old English dryge comes from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to become hard — the same root as drought and, at a distance, strong. What is dry has hardened, which is what mud and bread both do.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰerǵʰ- — to strengthen; become hard
Proto-Germanic
*drūgiz
Proto-West Germanic
*drūgī
Old English
drȳġe — dry; parched, withered
Middle English
drye
English, today
dry
Built from
Adjective and noun from Middle English drye, dryge, druȝe, 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”). 2 Cognate with Scots dry, drey (“dry”), frr drüg, driig, stq 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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA