(as) dry as dust
1. Very dry. I followed the recipe exactly, and yet my cake is as dry as dust. I need to take out my contact lenses now because my eyes are just dry as dust. My skin always gets as dry as dust in the winter. No amount of moisturizer ever seems to help!
2. Lacking any interesting or engaging elements; very boring. That lecture on polynomials almost put me to sleep—it was just dry as dust. I know many people consider this topic as dry as dust, but I've always found it fascinating. Dave is not a very engaging public speaker—his delivery is just about as dry as dust.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
*dry as dust
and *dry as a bone 1. Cliché very dry. (*Also: as ~.) The bread is as dry as dust. When the leaves are dry as a bone, they break into powder easily.
2. Cliché very dull; very boring. (*Also: as ~.) This book is as dry as dust. I am going to stop reading it. Her lecture was dry as dust—just like her subject.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
dry as dust
Dull, boring, as in This text is dry as dust; it's putting me to sleep. [c. 1500]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
dry as dust
If something is as dry as dust, it is very dry. Few houses have clean water and most farmers' fields are as dry as dust.
1. If something is as dry as dust, it is very boring. The whole affair is as dry as dust to the outside observer. Note: People also use dry-as-dust as an adjective. It is not, however, dry-as-dust history, but an enthralling story full of insight and incident.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
dry as dust
1 extremely dry. 2 extremely dull. Sense 2 is represented in the fictitious character of the antiquarian Dr Jonas Dryasdust, to whom Sir Walter Scott addressed the prefatory epistle of Ivanhoe and some other novels.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
(as) dry as ˈdust
extremely boring: Her lectures are very useful, but they’re dry as dust.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
dry-as-dust
mod. dull; lifeless. I can’t take another one of his dry-as-dust lectures.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
dry as dust
Dull, boring, desiccated. The simile itself dates from about 1500 and has been a cliché since the eighteenth century. Nevertheless, William Wordsworth deigned to use it in “The Excursion”: “The good die first, and they whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer