dry as dust

(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.

2. Lacking any interesting or engaging elements; very boring. That lecture on polynomials almost put me to sleep—it was just dry as dust.

See also: dry, dust

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 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.

See also: dry, dust

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]

See also: dry, dust

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.

See also: dry, dust

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.

See also: dry, dust

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

(as) dry as ˈdust

extremely boring: Her lectures are very useful, but they’re dry as dust.

See also: dry, dust

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

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.”

See also: dry, dust

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer