Idiom
dry run
Meaning
A practice or rehearsal; especially, one that goes through all the motions of a physical process but without the raw material or workpiece present.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“We did a dry run before the big presentation.”
“The theater group did a dry run of the play without costumes or lights.”
“Engineers conducted a final dry run of the launch sequence, checking every system without fuel in the tanks.”
Examples
simple
“We did a dry run before the big presentation.”
contextual
“The theater group did a dry run of the play without costumes or lights.”
complex
“Engineers conducted a final dry run of the launch sequence, checking every system without fuel in the tanks.”
Origin
From dry (“impotent; harmless”) + run. First attested in print in 1941, but apparently much older in spoken English.
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated