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

*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

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

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

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

(as) dry as ˈdust

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

See also: dry, dust