1. phrasal verbIf something dries up or if something dries it up, it loses all its moisture and becomes completely dry and shrivelled or hard.
As the day goes on, the pollen dries up and becomes hard. [VERB PARTICLE]
Warm breezes from the South dried up the streets. [VERB PARTICLE noun]
[Also
VERB noun
PARTICLE]dried-up adjective ...a tuft or two of dried-up grass.
2. phrasal verbIf a river, lake, or well dries up, it becomes empty of water, usually because of hot weather and a lack of rain.
Reservoirs are drying up and farmers have begun to leave their land. [VERB PARTICLE]
The fountain is reputed never to dry up. [VERB PARTICLE]
dried-up adjective ...a dried-up river bed.
3. phrasal verbIf a supply of something dries up, it stops.
Investment could dry up and that could cause the economy to falter. [VERB PARTICLE]
Credit from foreign banks is drying up. [VERB PARTICLE]
The company laid off 65,000 workers after commercial-jet orders dried up. [VERB PARTICLE]
4. phrasal verbIf you dry up when you are speaking, you stop in the middle of what you were saying, because you cannot think what to say next.
If you ask her what she's good at she will dry up after two minutes. [VERB PARTICLE]
5. dry [sense 3]
6. See also dried-up, drying up
See full dictionary entry for dry