dry-as-dust
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of dry-as-dust
1870–75; after Dr. Dryasdust, a fictitious pedant satirized in the prefaces of Sir Walter Scott's novels
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Yesterday, the decision emerged in a dry-as-dust news release at the dog end of the political day.
From BBC • Dec. 8, 2022
Even that old windbag Polonius, played by Robert Joy, is less a bombastic grandstander than a dry-as-dust martinet.
From New York Times • Jan. 23, 2018
Using historical narrative to illuminate a broad-scope, international principle is a welcome change from dry-as-dust writing about such topics.
From Washington Post • Jul. 22, 2016
Even when they didn’t, there was always Mr Norton to nudge them along with a dry-as-dust “oops. That’s got to be awkward.”
From The Guardian • May 23, 2015
She opened her desk, and put a quire of paper ready for any notes she might be tempted to make, and then she began, steadily and laboriously, with a dry-as-dust history of ancient Egypt.
From Vixen, Volume III. by Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
