phrasal verb (intransitive) · neutral
run dry
/rʌn draɪ/RUN·dry
task2speaking
to become empty or no longer provide something (often water or a supply)
Examples
“After months without rain the river finally ran dry.”
“Local funding ran dry and the project stalled.”
“If the well runs dry, the village will have to move.”
Band 8 sentence
“When local donations ran dry, the charity had to scale back its operations substantially.”
Collocations
- run dry (a river/a well/resources/funding)
Word family
run verb
Common mistakes
The river is dryed.→The river has run dry.
The money run dry.→The money ran dry.
Say it for a higher band
5stop supplying→6dry up→7+run dry
Synonyms
dry up
be exhausted
Easily confused
dry up
“The stream dried up after the heatwave.”
Related words
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