Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to cover up, to keep quiet about.

1859

Calif. Police Gazette 27 Mar. 1/7: We were witness to the whole, and had they known the fact, they would have taken more care to dry the matter up.

2. to stop talking.

1853		S.F. Comm. Advertiser 9 Dec. 2/4: She defied his Honor and all his officers, [...] and giving assurance of a disposition never to ‘dry up,’ was carried down below to cool off [DA].
1858		letter in Age (Melbourne) 4 June 5/1: On more occasions than one [...] I have been rudely told to '‘dry up.’ Am I a puddle, an ink stain, a wet blanket perhaps they think me so— that I should be requested to become dry ?
1859		C. Abbey diary 27 Oct. in Gosnell Before the Mast (1989) 219: I told him to shut up or I’d demolish him where he sat, then he ‘dried up’.
1866		C.H. Smith Bill Arp 133: Sum of your folks have got to dry up [...] Ain’t your editors got nothin else to do but to peck at us, and squib at us, and crow over us?
1869		Armagh Guardian 26 Nov. 7/1: Such a tremendous row going on, and all this mad spouting. You really must, as your American phrase is, ‘dry up’.
1878		New Ulm Wkly (MN) 25 Sept. 6/2: He cussed ’em and told ’em to dry up.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 6/4: And now, dear Bulletin, as I have only just time to dress for the Duchess of Eel Pie Island’s ‘At home’ [...], I must dry-up for the present.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 22 July 2/4: One of the audience got exasperated and told the Johnnie to ‘dry up’.
1896		Regiment 13 June 167/1: The Secretary of a club, who invites me to biscuits and sugar, said I should ‘dry up.’ What he means I really don’t know.
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Woman in White’ Sporting Times 27 June 1/3: He’d started his speech on a haphazard plan, / And dried up, so she helped the embarrassed young man.
1916		Leon Reporter (IA) 15 June 12/1: Well, my friend, I must dry up now.
1919		K.H. Day Camion Cartoons [caption in letter] 🌐 If you don’t dry up you’re going to get crowned.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 360: Milly [...] had no respect for her father, blew in like a coloured and scented gale and told him to ‘dry up about his old ritchool’.
1946		‘Uncle Newton’ Ups and Downs of Newsy Wapps Bk 1 5: Warning me to ‘shut up’ and to ‘dry it up, ‘AT ONCE’.
1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 165: Will you dry up and blow away.
1956		J. Osborne Look Back in Anger Act III: Are you going to dry up, or do I read the papers down here?
1966		B. Reckord Skyvers II i: ’E ain’t ’ad a chance to say a thing yet. Will you dry up?
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 155: I’d better dry up.
2012		IOL Cape Western News (SA) 14 Feb. 🌐 Will he not just dry up, die and blow away?

3. as imper., be quiet.

1853		N.Y. Clipper 31 Dec. 3/4: But if you must take Tom and his comrades with you [...] tell them not to use in speaking to the ladies, such expressions as ‘oh, dry up and bust,’ or ‘ you’d better believe it hon,’ or ‘I hear enough, old gal’ &c .
1858		W. Pratt Ten Nights in a Bar-Room IV i: Oh, you dry up.
1866		H.L. Williams N.-Y. After Dark 37: Oh, dry up!
1876		B. Harte Gabriel Conroy III 266: Dry up! — don’t you see you’re driving me half-crazy with your infernal buzzing?
1880		Henley & Stevenson Deacon Brodie II tab.IV viii: You dry up about his old man, and his sister; don’t go hitting on a pal.
1883		G.W. Peck Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa (1887) 157: Polly got up on the perch, and as the minister got warmed up, and began to raise the roof, Polly said, ‘O, dry up’.
1892		‘F. Anstey’ Voces Populi 322: ’Ere, dry up, Guv’nor.
1893		K. Mackay Out Back 187: ‘Dry up, the lot of you,’ he said, in a low, fierce tone of command.
1902		J. Masefield ‘One of the Bosun’s Yarns’ Salt-Water Ballads 10: So I says ‘Dry up, or I’ll fetch you a crack o’ the head.’.
1908		S.E. White Riverman 3: ‘Dry up!’ advised the grizzled old-timer.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 104: Oh, dry up!
1914		‘Ian Hay’ Lighter Side of School Life 117: Dry up, Ashley minor!
1923		R. McAlmon Village 224: Ah dry up, Pete, you always were an anarchist.
1925		S. O’Casey Juno and the Paycock Act I: Ah, dhry up, for God’s sake!
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 468: ‘Oh, dry up,’ said Mr. Ridvers.
1934		Z.N. Hurston Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1995) 67: Aw dry up, Emmeline, dry up!
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 45: ‘Ah, dry up, you!’ Daisy shouted.
1948		P. Kavanagh Tarry Flynn (1965) 105: Ah, dry up and don’t be making a barney balls of yourself.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: Ah, shut up, you Scotch haggis! Dry up, boy!
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 74: Dry up for cripes sake!
1965		C. Himes Cotton Comes to Harlem (1967) 197: ‘Dry up,’ Four-Four said.
1973		H. Leonard Da (1981) Act I: Dry up, will you.
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 377: ‘Oh dry up.’ That was Violet.
1991		W.T. Vollmann Whores for Gloria 67: Oh, dry up, yawned Luna.
2001		G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Dry up (phr): Shut up!
2011		M.P. Donovan So You Shall Reap 67: ‘Oh, dry up, you creep,’ said a brown-haired girl [...] ‘Yeah, don't pay any attention to that one’.

4. (US) to abandon an action.

1860

N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 18 Aug. 8/3: Be careful, bummers — you are all known and your names will be given if you do not dry up.

5. (US Und.) to refuse to give information (to the police).

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].