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Wiktionary
dry up

vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To become dry (often of weather); to lose water. 2 (context transitive English) To cause to become dry. 3 (context transitive English) To deprive someone of (something vital). 4 (context intransitive English) To cease to exist; to disappear 5 (context intransitive transitive English) To manually dry dishes 6 (context intransitive English) To stop talking, to forget what one was going to say.

WordNet
dry up
  1. v. lose water or moisture; "In the desert, you get dehydrated very quickly" [syn: dehydrate, desiccate] [ant: hydrate]

  2. dry up and shrivel due to complete loss of moisture; "a mummified body was found" [syn: mummify]

Usage examples of "dry up".

Our rivers dry up, our crops fail, and our cattle and goats die of thirst.

If tariffs made it too costly for Americans to buy European goods, then Europe would have reduced need for the South's raw materials, and the region's export business would dry up.

For real excitement wait until the war is over and the armies disband and all the war-related jobs dry up.

It is of good use to warm and dry up the cold humours, to digest and disperse them that are settled in the veins, joints and sinews of the body and to help cramps and convulsions.

This fluid was not in the least acid, and began to dry up, or more probably was absorbed, in 5 hrs.

Taken fasting in the morning it is very profitable for pains in the head that are continual, and to stay, dry up, and consume all thin rheums or distillations from the head into the stomach, and helps much to digest raw humours that are gathered therein.

In truth, it turned out to be one of those problematical whales that seem to dry up and die with a sort of prodigious dyspepsia, or indigestion.

Tomorrow, according to Turai's regular calendar, the rain will dry up and we'll have a month or so of pleasant autumn weather before winter arrives.

Seeds are removed when the calyx begins to dry up and the dark shiny perianth (seed coat) can be seen protruding from the drying calyx.

The sunlight was all the worse because of the mist, and did not seem to dry up the mud in the least.