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

When 2023’s intense heatwave collided with one of the driest seasons on record, vast areas of the Amazon’s waterways shrank or dried up entirely, concentrating heat in the shallow lakes that remained. —Moná Thomas, PEOPLE, 12 Nov. 2025

May Prevent Dry Eye Dry eye develops when your eyes don't produce enough tears or when tears dry up too quickly. —Lindsay Curtis, Health, 12 Nov. 2025

But then the rain dried up completely. —Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 10 Nov. 2025

Tehran, the capital, has also struggled with falling water levels and periodic rationing, while major lakes such as Lake Urmia in the northwest have largely dried up after decades of mismanagement and reduced inflow. —Amir Daftari, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Nov. 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