What it means
Bone dry means totally dry or completely empty, with nothing left to give. You can use it for a riverbed, a throat, a towel, a fridge, your bank account in a jokey way, whatever's been drained right down to the last crumb of moisture. It's standard everyday English, just with a nice extra thump.
Usage examples
"You got any milk for a brew? Carton’s bone dry, mate, someone’s rinsed it. Same story with the biscuit tin, absolute scenes."
"We hauled the canoe across a riverbed that was bone dry, not a puddle in sight all summer."
"By the third encore the bar was bone dry, they had sold the last drop of everything but tap water."
"After that speech my throat was bone dry, I needed water before I could get another word out."
"Open the cupboard if you want, it's bone dry in there till payday."
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Where it comes from
It’s an old English intensifier that’s been around since at least the 16th century. The image is simple and sturdy: a bone is hard, bare, and dry to the touch, so calling something bone dry gives you that stripped-out, nothing-left kind of dryness in one hit.
Editors of this term
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