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drier

 [drahy-er]   Origin

dri·er

1   [drahy-er]
noun
1.
a person or thing that dries.
2.
any substance added to paints, varnishes, printing inks, etc., to make them dry quickly.
3.
dryer (def. 1).
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Origin:
1300–50; Middle English dreyere (as surname). See dry, -er1

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Drier is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged

dri·er

2   [drahy-er]
adjective
comparative of dry.

dry

   [drahy] adjective, dri·er, dri·est, verb, dried, dry·ing, noun, plural drys, dries.
adjective
1.
free from moisture or excess moisture; not moist; not wet: a dry towel; dry air.
2.
having or characterized by little or no rain: a dry climate; the dry season.
3.
characterized by absence, deficiency, or failure of natural or ordinary moisture.
4.
not under, in, or on water: It was good to be on dry land.
5.
not now containing or yielding water or other liquid; depleted or empty of liquid: The well is dry.
EXPAND
6.
not yielding milk: a dry cow.
7.
free from tears: dry eyes.
8.
drained or evaporated away: a dry river.
9.
desiring drink; thirsty: He was so dry he could hardly speak.
10.
causing thirst: dry work.
11.
served or eaten without butter, jam, etc.: dry toast.
12.
(of cooked food) lacking enough moisture or juice to be satisfying or succulent.
13.
(of bread and bakery products) stale.
14.
of or pertaining to nonliquid substances or commodities: dry measure; dry provisions.
15.
(of wines) not sweet.
16.
(of a cocktail)
a.
made with dry vermouth: a dry Manhattan.
b.
made with relatively little dry vermouth: a dry martini.
17.
characterized by or favoring prohibition of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors for use in beverages: a dry state.
18.
(of British biscuits) not sweet.
19.
plain; bald; unadorned: dry facts.
20.
dull; uninteresting: a dry subject.
21.
expressed in a straight-faced, matter-of-fact way: dry humor.
22.
indifferent; cold; unemotional: a dry answer.
23.
unproductive: The greatest of artists have dry years.
24.
(of lumber) fully seasoned.
25.
Building Trades.
a.
(of masonry construction) built without fresh mortar or cement.
b.
(of a wall, ceiling, etc., in an interior) finished without the use of fresh plaster.
26.
Ceramics.
a.
unglazed.
b.
insufficiently glazed.
27.
Art. hard and formal in outline, or lacking mellowness and warmth in color.
COLLAPSE
verb (used with object)
28.
to make dry; free from moisture: to dry the dishes.
verb (used without object)
29.
to become dry; lose moisture.
noun
30.
a prohibitionist.
31.
a dry place, area, or region.
Verb phrases
32.
dry out,
a.
to make or become completely dry.
b.
to undergo or cause to undergo detoxification from consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol.
33.
dry up,
a.
to make or become completely dry.
b.
to cease to exist; evaporate.
c.
Informal. to stop talking.
d.
(in acting) to forget one's lines or part.
Idiom
34.
not dry behind the ears, immature; unsophisticated: Adult responsibilities were forced on him, although he was still not dry behind the ears.
Origin:
before 900; Middle English drie, Old English drȳge; akin to Dutch droog, German trocken; see drought

Related forms
dry·a·ble, adjective
dry·ly, adverb
dry·ness, noun
o·ver·dry, adjective
o·ver·dry·ly, adverb
EXPAND
o·ver·dry·ness, noun
pre·dry, verb (used with object), -dried, -dry·ing.
re·dry, verb, -dried, -dry·ing.
ul·tra·dry, adjective
un·der·dry, verb (used with object), -dried, -dry·ing.
un·dry, adjective
un·dry·a·ble, adjective
COLLAPSE

Synonyms
1. Dry, arid both mean without moisture. Dry is the general word indicating absence of water or freedom from moisture: a dry well; dry clothes. Arid suggests great or intense dryness in a region or climate, especially such as results in bareness or in barrenness: arid tracts of desert. 20. tedious, barren, boring, tiresome, jejune. 28. See evaporate. 29. dehydrate.

Antonyms
1. wet. 20. interesting.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To drier
Collins
World English Dictionary
drier1 (ˈdraɪə)
 
—adj
a comparative of dry

drier2 (ˈdraɪə)
 
—n
a variant spelling of dryer

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

dry
O.E. dryge (adj.), drygan (v.), from P.Gmc. *draugiz. Of humor, 1540s; of places prohibiting alcoholic drink, 1870 (but dry feast, one at which no liquor is served, is from late 15c.). Related: Dried; drily. Of the two noun spellings, drier is the older (1520s), while dryer (1874) was first used of machines.
EXPAND
Dry goods (1708) were those measured out in dry, not liquid, measure. Dry land (that not under the sea) is from early 13c. Dry out in the drug addiction sense is from 1967. Dry up "stop talking" is 1853.

drier
see dry.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary

dry definition


  1. mod.
    sober; no longer alcohol intoxicated. : How long will Ernie stay dry, do you think?
  2. n.
    a prohibitionist; an abstainer from alcohol. : The drys are in an increasing majority.
  3. mod.
    having to do with a region where alcoholic beverages cannot be purchased. (Compare this with wet.) : Some small towns are dry, but not many.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Matching Quote
"The whole bank, which is from twenty to forty feet high, is sometimes overlaid with a mass of this kind of foliage, or sandy rupture, for a quarter of a mile on one or both sides, the produce of one spring day. What makes this sand foliage remarkable is its springing into existence thus suddenly. When I see on the one side the inert bank,—for the sun acts on one side first,—and on the other this luxuriant foliage, the creation of an hour, I am affected as if in a peculiar sense I stood in the laboratory of the Artist who made the world and me,—had come to where he was still at work, sporting on this bank, and with excess of energy strewing his fresh designs about. I feel as if I were nearer to the vitals of the globe, for this sandy overflow is something such a foliaceous mass as the vitals of the animal body. You find thus in the very sands an anticipation of the vegetable leaf. No wonder that the earth expresses itself outwardly in leaves, it labors with the idea inwardly. The atoms have already learned this law, and are pregnant by it. The overhanging leaf sees here its prototype. Internally, whether in the globe or animal body, it is a moist thick lobe, a word especially applicable to the liver and lungs and the leaves of fat (leibo, labor, lapsus, to flow or slip downward, a lapsing; lobos, globus, lobe, globe; also lap, flap, and many other words); externally, a dry thin leaf, even as the f and v are a pressed and dried b. The radicals of lobe are lb, the soft mass of the b (single-lobed, or B, double-lobed), with the liquid l behind it pressing it forward. In globe, glb, the gutteral g adds to the meaning the capacity of the throat. The feather and wings of birds are still drier and thinner leaves. Thus, also, you pass from the lumpish grub in the earth to the airy and fluttering butterfly. The very globe continually transcends and translates itself, and becomes winged in its orbit."
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