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 of dry up

• quiet (down)
• hush
• clam up
• shut up
• settle (down)
• pipe down
• cool (down)
• calm (down)

Examples of dry up in a Sentence

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

Recent Examples on the Web

Caves and overhangs here have protected at least 15,000 examples of rock art, some thought to be 10,000 years old, depicting people hunting or dancing, giraffes, cattle, and jars possibly for carrying water as the region dried up. — Heather Richardson, Condé Nast Traveler, 3 Nov. 2026

When galleries shut down during the pandemic, his art sales dried up. — Lin Ying-Hsuan, Variety, 2 Nov. 2026

But even the larger AI firms are using venture cash to do it, and if that funding were to dry up, Google’s cloud revenues could go with it. — Ryan Whitwam, ArsTechnica, 29 Oct. 2026

One is local media money, which particularly in smaller markets, has dried up. — Evan Drellich, New York Times, 29 Oct. 2026

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