Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to stop drinking alcohol; usu. to recover from alcoholism or from a bout of excessive drinking; thus drying-out place/clinic n., a rehabilitation clinic; also as vtr., to stop someone drinking (see cites 1951, 2004).

1951		R. Starnes Grant’s Tomb 39: ‘[W]ho it is who is hauling Hack Harper away to be dried out’.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 551: He had had to dry out for three days to make the weight and eat nothing but Horlick’s Malted Milk Tablets.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 249: I’m going to dry out soon, Garry.
1969		A. Buzo Rooted III iv: They took him to a drying-out place, but it was no good.
1974		Time 22 Apr. 80: Elizabeth dried out for a while and then had a relapse, drinking more heavily than before.
1990		S. Geason Shaved Fish 119: We’ve got to dry him out. [...] As long as he’s a drunk, he’s in danger.
2000		Observer Mag. 12 Mar. 17: Belushi checked himself into a drying-out clinic.
2004		Simon & Alvarez ‘Homecoming’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 6 [TV script] Old Bruiser, he be blind behind that fortified half the time. Shit, you got to dry him out just to get him on the stand.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 264: Alternatively getting strung out on and dried out from booze and drugs.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 4: [D]rying-out sessions in miserable rehab centres.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 102: I’ve dried out there before.

2. to withdraw from narcotics addiction; thus dried out adj.

1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 85: dried out Detoxified, withdrawn from a drug, usually in a hospital, as in ‘I went into Manhattan General and got dried out’.
1970		G. Cain Blueschild Baby 7: They have facilities for detecting narcotics in the body. [...] I’ll make the appointment for the end of the week. That will give you time to dry out.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 341: dried out: Having completed detoxification, or withdrawal, from a drug.
1997		L. Davies Candy 22: You’ve got seven days to dry out.
2000		Observer Mag. 11 June 15: He devoted himself full time to being a junkie, till his mother paid for him to dry out.
2010		see sense 1.

3. to wean an alcoholic off drinking.

1970

J. Wambaugh New Centurions 149: ‘I hate like hell to go to all the trouble of absentee booking a drunk at the General Hospital prison ward [...] They’ll dry him out and [...] he’ll be right back here’.