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dried up; drying up; dries up
Definition of dry up
: to cut off the supply of
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
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Examples of dry up in a Sentence
sick of her constant complaining, he angrily told her to dry up
Recent Examples on the Web With alternative locations drying up, some U.N. functionaries started to worry.
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Sam Roberts, New York Times, "5 New York Buildings That Changed American History," 31 Oct. 2019 More recently, Gulf money, from tourism and also remittances, dried up, as a result of sanctions against Hezbollah, which has been fighting in Syria on the side of the regime.
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Helen Sullivan, The New Yorker, "The Making of Lebanon’s October Revolution," 29 Oct. 2019 According to the report, the result could be land subsidence, including ground fissures, lower water quality and even the possibility of wells drying up.
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USA TODAY, "‘Nightmare’ roof, fire-starting drones, Pennywise Jeep: News from around our 50 states," 29 Oct. 2019 When his mother died in 1981, the supply of new handknit sweaters dried up.
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Cristina Rouvalis, Smithsonian, "The Behind-the-Scenes Quest to Find Mister Rogers’ Signature Cardigans," 7 Oct. 2019 Even major cities like Chennai and Mumbai suffered from severe water shortages, with reservoirs drying up and government tankers bringing in emergency water every week.
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Jessie Yeung, CNN, "'Unprecedented' monsoon rains India leave 11 people dead in western India," 27 Sep. 2019 This is not because investment opportunities in the country have suddenly dried up.
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The Economist, "Uncertainty about Brexit is hampering business investment in Britain," 8 Oct. 2019 After the money dries up, in 2008, Ramona (who has a daughter of her own) enlists Destiny to solidify her business plan.
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Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, "'Hustlers’ review: J-Lo, Constance Wu and Cardi B strip Wall Street boys of their assets," 11 Sep. 2019 The idea, first developed in Russia during the Soviet era, stalled when research money dried up during tough economic times following the Cold War.
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Chase Purdy, Quartz, "US scientists quadrupled milk’s shelf life using Soviet technology," 8 Aug. 2019
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dry up.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Time Traveler for dry up
The first known use of dry up was in the 14th century
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