dry-as-dust

or dry·as·dust

[ drahy-uhz-duhst ]

adjective

1. dull and boring:

   a dry-as-dust biography.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dry-as-dust¹

1870–75; after Dr. Dryasdust, a fictitious pedant satirized in the prefaces of Sir Walter Scott's novels

Idioms and Phrases

Dull, boring, as in This text is dry as dust; it's putting me to sleep . [c. 1500]

Example Sentences

Yesterday, the decision emerged in a dry-as-dust news release at the dog end of the political day.

From BBC

Hughes has infused new life into dry-as-dust facts to produce a learned work that is brazenly, impudently vivacious.

From Washington Post

As Bernard Baruch points out in his introduction, “This is no dry-as-dust study. It deals with the raw stuff of living, how more than two billion men and women, including you and me, are to be fed, sheltered, and clothed — and whether or not we will live in peace tomorrow, and next year, and in the year 1975.”

From New York Times

Even that old windbag Polonius, played by Robert Joy, is less a bombastic grandstander than a dry-as-dust martinet.

From New York Times

Yet Irwin is hardly a dry-as-dust antiquary, and “Wonders Will Never Cease” frequently reveals the wide range of his reading: His description of the world’s end was obviously adapted from H.G.

From Washington Post

Related Words

• anxious
• dehydrated
• eager
• greedy
• hungry
• impatient
• inclined
• keen
• parched