dry up

1. 1.

   lose water or moisture

   “In the desert, you get dehydrated very quickly”

   Synonymsexsiccatedehydratedesiccate

   Broaderdry
2. 2.

   dry up and shrivel due to complete loss of moisture

   “a mummified body was found”

   Synonymsmummify

   Broadershrivel

Questions about dry up

What does dry up mean?

dry up means "lose water or moisture". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for dry up?

Close synonyms include exsiccate, dehydrate, desiccate, mummify. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is dry up a common word?

dry up is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.