Dry Not good. Bad.

All purpose term for something that is bad. Example uses:

"Oh man that's dry!"

"That party was dry."


Also used as a general exclamation, the severity of which can be judged by the over-pronounciation of the word:

"Deee-ry!!"

...for example would be something pretty god damn dry.

Compare: Harsh

Part of the London Slang Project

Augusten Burroughs. Dry (2003) Picador

Augusten Burrough's Dry is a memoir of addiction and recovery. It begins with an ultimatum: go into rehab or lose your job. Augusten, who narrates the whole ordeal, thinks this is all very funny. He takes the time off before he leaves for rehab to drink. He has built his entire life around selective vision: he doesn't notice how much he drinks, how it affects those around him, how close to dying he is.

"He doesn't pat my back or pull away after a few seconds. He hugs me tightly and takes deep, slow breaths, almost like he is teaching me how to breathe."

He enters rehab, and everything is described through his jaundiced eye. The first time he realizes how much he's been drinking (a liter of Scotch every single night) he begins to come around: He is close to dying from alcoholism.

"I'm worried that all of the inner mess that was channeled in alcoholism is now channeled into other disturbing rivers. That I've drained the lake to flood the city."

After leaving rehab, he tries to reshape his life to fit his sobriety. His recovery is narcassitic in some ways, just another ploy to gain attention. He commits a cardinal sin: he becomes romantically involved with another addict.

"I stand by the door looking at the others guys who are themselves looking for other guys. The whole thing suddenly strikes me as beyond sad. All of this exposed loneliness. These raw nerves firing into the dark."

What causes him to relapse is his hubris. He considers himself cured, fixed, beyond the need of AA and therapy, he takes his sobriety for granted. He makes a LOT of bad choices; half of the torture of the book is watching him struggle to pull himself of of his own slow death. His greatest enemy is himself, and the humor that marked the beginning of the book it darker, misplaced. His humor is a defense against the realization of what a mess he is.

"Last month, I am smoking crack in the South Bronx and this month, I am urinating in my own bed. This is not progress."

Dry is sometimes difficult to read, not because it isn't well-written (it is), but because Augusten endears himself to you, and you feel protective of him. His process of recognizing his own addiction is smart, funny, sad, and visceral. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone newly on the wagon, he talks of booze with a reverence only a drunk can muster, lamenting throughout the book about his mad desire for it. But if you think someone you love might have a drinking problem, this engaging, beautiful book is require reading.

Dry (?), a. [Compar. Drier (?); superl. Driest.] [OE. drue, druye, drie, AS. dryge; akin to LG. droge, D. droog, OHG. trucchan, G. trocken, Icel. draugr a dry log. Cf. Drought, Drouth, 3d Drug.]

1.

Free from moisture; having little humidity or none; arid; not wet or moist; deficient in the natural or normal supply of moisture, as rain or fluid of any kind; -- said especially: (a) Of the weather: Free from rain or mist.

The weather, we agreed, was too dry for the season. Addison.

(b)

Of vegetable matter: Free from juices or sap; not succulent; not green; as, dry wood or hay

. (c)

Of animals: Not giving milk; as, the cow is dry

. (d)

Of persons: Thirsty; needing drink

.

Give the dry fool drink. Shak

(e)

Of the eyes: Not shedding tears

.

Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly. Prescott.

(f) Med.

Of certain morbid conditions, in which there is entire or comparative absence of moisture; as, dry gangrene; dry catarrh

.

2.

Destitute of that which interests or amuses; barren; unembellished; jejune; plain.

These epistles will become less dry, more susceptible of ornament. Pope.

3.

Characterized by a quality somewhat severe, grave, or hard; hence, sharp; keen; shrewd; quaint; as, a dry tone or manner; dry wit.

He was rather a dry, shrewd kind of body. W. Irving.

4. Fine Arts

Exhibiting a sharp, frigid preciseness of execution, or the want of a delicate contour in form, and of easy transition in coloring.

Dry area Arch., a small open space reserved outside the foundation of a building to guard it from damp. -- Dry blow. (a) Med. A blow which inflicts no wound, and causes no effusion of blood. (b) A quick, sharp blow. -- Dry bone Min., Smithsonite, or carbonate of zinc; -- a miner's term. -- Dry castor Zool. a kind of beaver; -- called also parchment beaver. -- Dry cupping. Med. See under Cupping. -- Dry dock. See under Dock. -- Dry fat. See Dry vat (below). -- Dry light, pure unobstructed light; hence, a clear, impartial view. Bacon.

The scientific man must keep his feelings under stern control, lest they obtrude into his researches, and color the dry light in which alone science desires to see its objects. J. C. Shairp.

-- Dry masonry. See Masonry. -- Dry measure, a system of measures of volume for dry or coarse articles, by the bushel, peck, etc. -- Dry pile Physics, a form of the Voltaic pile, constructed without the use of a liquid, affording a feeble current, and chiefly useful in the construction of electroscopes of great delicacy; -- called also Zamboni's , from the names of the two earliest constructors of it. -- Dry pipe Steam Engine, a pipe which conducts dry steam from a boiler. -- Dry plate Photog., a glass plate having a dry coating sensitive to light, upon which photographic negatives or pictures can be made, without moistening. -- Dry-plate process, the process of photographing with dry plates. -- Dry point. Fine Arts (a) An engraving made with the needle instead of the burin, in which the work is done nearly as in etching, but is finished without the use acid. (b) A print from such an engraving, usually upon paper. (c) Hence: The needle with which such an engraving is made. -- Dry rent Eng.Law, a rent reserved by deed, without a clause of distress. Bouvier. -- Dry rot, a decay of timber, reducing its fibers to the condition of a dry powdery dust, often accompanied by the presence of a peculiar fungus (Merulius lacrymans), which is sometimes considered the cause of the decay; but it is more probable that the real cause is the decomposition of the wood itself. D. C. Eaton. Called also sap rot, and, in the United States, powder post. Hebert. -- Dry stove, a hothouse adapted to preserving the plants of arid climates. Brande & C. -- Dry vat, a vat, basket, or other receptacle for dry articles. -- Dry wine, that in which the saccharine matter and fermentation were so exactly balanced, that they have wholly neutralized each other, and no sweetness is perceptible; -- opposed to sweet wine, in which the saccharine matter is in excess.

 

© Webster 1913.


Dry, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dried (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Drying.] [AS. drygan; cf. drugian to grow dry. See Dry, a.]

To make dry; to free from water, or from moisture of any kind, and by any means; to exsiccate; as, to dry the eyes; to dry one's tears; the wind dries the earth; to dry a wet cloth; to dry hay.

To dry up. (a) To scorch or parch with thirst; to deprive utterly of water; to consume.

Their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. Is. v. 13.

The water of the sea, which formerly covered it, was in time exhaled and dried up by the sun. Woodward.

(b) To make to cease, as a stream of talk.

Their sources of revenue were dried up. Jowett (Thucyd. )

-- To dry, ∨ dry up, a cow, to cause a cow to cease secreting milk.

Tylor.

 

© Webster 1913.


Dry, v. i.

1.

To grow dry; to become free from wetness, moisture, or juice; as, the road dries rapidly.

2.

To evaporate wholly; to be exhaled; -- said of moisture, or a liquid; -- sometimes with up; as, the stream dries, or dries up.

3.

To shrivel or wither; to lose vitality.

And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. I Kings xiii. 4.

 

© Webster 1913.

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