dry

Dry has a lot of meanings that stem from its literal meaning: free from moisture.

Something that is completely dry in this sense can be described as bone-dry, desert-dry, or dry as dust.

Deserts and other dry environments—those without rain or humidity—are often described as arid. Sometimes, arid implies that such an environment is also barren (lacking vegetation due to the lack of water).

The land in such places could be described as parched, which is also used to describe someone who is thirsty (whose throat is dry).

A dry climate is one without much rain. An extended period of dry weather is called a drought. The adjective droughty can describe dry weather, but it’s not commonly used.

Something that has become dry due to a loss of moisture could be described as dried-up. Depending on the cause of the moisture loss, it could be described as drained or evaporated.

A plant that has dried up could be described as withered or shriveled. An uncommon synonym is sere.

Something that has had its moisture removed intentionally could be described as dried, as in dried fruits. The word dehydrated is sometimes used to mean the same thing.

A common nonliteral sense of dry is used to describe a particular sense of humor (or a joke) that’s expressed in a straight-faced, matter-of-fact way (as if it weren’t a joke at all). This type of delivery is sometimes described as deadpan. Sarcasm is not the same thing as dry humor, but the two sometimes overlap.

Another nonliteral sense is used to describe something that’s dull or uninteresting because it lacks any exciting or engaging elements, as in The presentation was a bit dry—you need to liven it up a bit.

Describing eyes as dry means there are no tears in them. This is usually used in the negative, as in There wasn’t a dry eye in the audience (meaning that everyone was crying).

A figurative sense of dry means not having or allowing alcohol, as in a dry town.

As a verb, dry means to remove the moisture from something, as in Dry the dishes or to lose moisture, as in Let the dishes dry in the dish drainer. The verb phrase dry off can be used for either sense.

Dry is the opposite of wet, moist, and damp. There are a lot of words for things that are very wet, such as soaked, drenched, and water-logged.

The opposite of a dry climate is a rainy or humid one.

The opposite of something that’s dry as in dull or uninteresting is something that’s exciting, engaging, or dynamic.

Wet can also be the opposite of the verb dry, as in If the brush is dry, wet it before using it. A perhaps more commonly used synonym of the verb sense of wet is moisten.

The third person singular form of the verb dry is dries, as in She dries the dishes with a towel or Just leave it there while it dries. However, drys is also a word, although a much less common one—it’s an alternate plural form of the noun dry, which has a few different meanings.