Heading
Drury-Lane Ague, subs. phr. (old).—A venereal disease.—See Ladies' Fever.
Drury-Lane Vestal, subs. (old).—A prostitute. Cf., Covent Garden Nun, and Bank-side ladies.
Dry as a Lime-basket.—See Lime-basket.
Dry-bob, subs. and verb (venery).—Coition without emission (said of men only).
Dry-boots, subs. (old).—A dry humorist. [Grose—1785.]
Dry-hash, subs. (Australian).—A miser; or bad egg; also, by implication, a loafer.
1887. All the Year Round, 30 July, p. 66. In Australian parlance . . . a dry hash, or a stringy bark, that is, a ne'er-do-weel.
Dry-land! intj. (rhyming).—'You understand!
Dryland Sailor.—See Turnpike Sailor.
Dry-lodging, subs. (common).—Accommodation without board.
Dry-nurse, subs. (old).—A guardian; a bear-leader, or tutor; a junior who instructs an ignorant chief in his duties.
1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fayre, I. Quar. Well, this dry nurse, I say still, is a delicate man.
c. 1640. [Shirley], Captain Underwit, in Bullen's Old Plays, ii. 322. Tho. But, sir, you must have a dry nurse, as many Captaines have. Let me see: I can hire you an old limping decayed sergeant at Brainford that taught the boyes.
1747. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 10 May (1833), vol. II., p. 292. This curious Minister . . . used to . . . walk in the Park with their daughters, and once went dry-nurse to Holland with them.
1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxv. Oh, some poor devil old Grant has picked up cheap as dry-nurse to his pet idiot . . . half valet, half tutor.
1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. When a superior officer does not know his duty, and is instructed in it by an inferior officer, he is said to be dry-nursed. The inferior nurses the superior as a dry-nurse rears an infant.
Dry-room, subs. (thieves').—A prison. For synonyms, see Cage.
Dry-shave, subs. (common).—Rubbing the chin with the fingers; also used as a verb. The action implies a certain effrontery.
Dry-up, subs. (theatrical).—A failure or Columbus (q.v.); contrast with draw, sense 2.
Verb (colloquial).—To cease talking; to abandon a purpose or position; to stop work. As an interjection = Hold your jaw!
1865. The Index, 2 Feb. With which modest contribution we dry up with reference to the subject.
1872. Daily Telegraph, 4 July. An audience which should cause defeated Boston to hang her diminished head, dry up, and feel small.
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 69. I must dry up for the fellow's bested me.
1884. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 617. Dry up! is the slangy and impatient exclamation with which he cuts short the occasional attempts of his mother to lecture him.
1887. O. W. Holmes, Our Hundred Days, p. 131. There were frequent . . . interruptions, something like these: 'That will do, sir!' or, 'You had better stop, sir!' . . . With us it would have been dry up! or Hold on!
1888. R. Haggard, Mr. Meeson's Will [in Illus. Lond. News, Summer No. p. 3, col. 1]. He . . . suddenly dried up
