In the world of Hydroelectric Power which I frequent, when we have taken a machine off-line for overhaul we run it “in the dry” (that is, without water) as we are testing it to make sure that it won’t fly apart with water in it and drown all hands. We call such an effort a “dry run”.
drm
amar:
September 14th, 2009 at 2:23 am
this is superb! I was speculating that the phrase was a result of the prohibition. so trucks would try and sneak across the border – and dry run to test.
Don Frost:
November 5th, 2010 at 4:03 am
Now it may just be me, but I was watching Dukes of Hazzard on TV tonite and Boss Hogg used the term “dry run” on there in the episode about him dying (was a mistake) but anyway, I decided to see where the term came from. Thinking about how they were ridge runners during the prohibition I assumed it may have something to do with that. I see that amar was thinking the same thing and it does seem very plausible. Being that the first dictionary appearance was in ’41 makes it even more so. I have some shiners still alive in my family and I will look into it more but for now I think it is safe to say “Dry Run” (Dry=Prohibition) means to do a test run with no shine in the car.
anonym:
December 19th, 2011 at 6:23 pm
I thought it had something to do with running printing presses without ink…
Pirate:
May 10th, 2013 at 12:18 pm
I was thinking it was much older than that, stemming from pirates or bootleggers running blockades with their holds empty or “dry” in advance of running through with their holds full of bootleg rum!
J.L.M.:
August 13th, 2013 at 2:10 am
A “wet run” sounds like someone didn’t make it to the bathroom in time. :/
Thomas Guerra:
January 5th, 2014 at 8:59 pm
Well, before gluing furniture or any wood-work project together it is standard practice to clamp the whole thing up without glue to see if everything is square. Once you establish that everything fits together correctly by this “dry run”, you glue it.
That would be “dry fit” when talking about carpentry.
Ale:
February 24th, 2015 at 12:01 pm
Thanks for the explanation, since long time ago I was thinking about the meaning of dry run ! BTW: I got used to it in finance processes.
Singaporean:
June 19th, 2015 at 12:16 am
“Dry run” is used in the Singapore Army to indicate any training or exercise done without live ammo. In Singapore, the popular belief is that the term “dry run” originated from usage in the military (of which all male citizens are conscripted to). In the past generations of the 1960s and 1970s, many conscripts were Chinese-language educated, and the Army was their first immersion of an English-language environment. Their accent made them pronounce “trial run” as “dry run”. They also referred to themselves as “Chinese-educated”, which the English-schooled colleagues would hear as “Chinese helicopter”. Hence this became derogatory term that was used to refer to all soldiers who were Chinese-educated.
i’m a furniture maker and the term dry run has always been used to describe a practice assembly of a piece of furniture with out the glue in the joints i.e. dry.
this may seem odd but in reality glue starts to set very quickly and in many situations (particularly if it is warm) you may only have a few minutes to get everything assembled and the clamps in place. the dry run allows you to set all of the clamps and lay out all of the pieces so that the full glue up runs smoothly. at the best of times glue ups are very stressful (you may have several weeks of work invested in making all the components and cutting all the joints) so anything to reduce the stress is very helpful. i don’t know if this is the true entomology of the phrase but it may be.
hope this helps.
jon
Cylinder-head-nut:
March 27th, 2017 at 7:34 pm
The term ‘dry run’ is often used in engineering, as shown above in the case of printing.
In an automotive sense, internal combustion engines require oil for lubrication. Oil is housed in the ‘sump’ at the bottom of the engine and is pumped to the moving parts to provide lubrication. To initially test an engine in the factory (prior to delivery), sometimes a tiny amount of oil is applied to strategic parts of the engine such as the main bearings, and the engine is started ‘dry’ (without the sump being filled with oil). The engine will be run for a few seconds only before being shut down ready for delivery to the customer, who will then fill the sump with oil prior to use.
A ‘dry run’ such as this in the factory proves the the engine works. I always assumed that THIS was the origin of the term, but it appears it is only one example of a ‘dry run’. Interesting topic. Thank you to all who have commented so far.
Bill Clinton:
April 19th, 2020 at 5:03 pm
Moonshiners and people who transported alcohol illegally made a dry run in a transport vehicle as a decoy to lead revenuers away from the vehicle making the wet run.
The dry vehicle had no alcohol but the wet vehicle did. The movie “Thunder Road” with Robert Mitchum was loosely based on the activities of real life moon runners.
Opinions vary as to whether Shiners were the first to use the terms dry-run and wet-run and whether Shiners caused dry-run to become widely used.
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Dale Murphy:
July 24th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
In the world of Hydroelectric Power which I frequent, when we have taken a machine off-line for overhaul we run it “in the dry” (that is, without water) as we are testing it to make sure that it won’t fly apart with water in it and drown all hands. We call such an effort a “dry run”.
drm
amar:
September 14th, 2009 at 2:23 am
this is superb! I was speculating that the phrase was a result of the prohibition. so trucks would try and sneak across the border – and dry run to test.
Don Frost:
November 5th, 2010 at 4:03 am
Now it may just be me, but I was watching Dukes of Hazzard on TV tonite and Boss Hogg used the term “dry run” on there in the episode about him dying (was a mistake) but anyway, I decided to see where the term came from. Thinking about how they were ridge runners during the prohibition I assumed it may have something to do with that. I see that amar was thinking the same thing and it does seem very plausible. Being that the first dictionary appearance was in ’41 makes it even more so. I have some shiners still alive in my family and I will look into it more but for now I think it is safe to say “Dry Run” (Dry=Prohibition) means to do a test run with no shine in the car.
anonym:
December 19th, 2011 at 6:23 pm
I thought it had something to do with running printing presses without ink…
Pirate:
May 10th, 2013 at 12:18 pm
I was thinking it was much older than that, stemming from pirates or bootleggers running blockades with their holds empty or “dry” in advance of running through with their holds full of bootleg rum!
J.L.M.:
August 13th, 2013 at 2:10 am
A “wet run” sounds like someone didn’t make it to the bathroom in time. :/
Thomas Guerra:
January 5th, 2014 at 8:59 pm
Well, before gluing furniture or any wood-work project together it is standard practice to clamp the whole thing up without glue to see if everything is square. Once you establish that everything fits together correctly by this “dry run”, you glue it.
Greg Rundlett:
March 4th, 2014 at 1:12 pm
That would be “dry fit” when talking about carpentry.
Ale:
February 24th, 2015 at 12:01 pm
Thanks for the explanation, since long time ago I was thinking about the meaning of dry run ! BTW: I got used to it in finance processes.
Singaporean:
June 19th, 2015 at 12:16 am
“Dry run” is used in the Singapore Army to indicate any training or exercise done without live ammo. In Singapore, the popular belief is that the term “dry run” originated from usage in the military (of which all male citizens are conscripted to). In the past generations of the 1960s and 1970s, many conscripts were Chinese-language educated, and the Army was their first immersion of an English-language environment. Their accent made them pronounce “trial run” as “dry run”. They also referred to themselves as “Chinese-educated”, which the English-schooled colleagues would hear as “Chinese helicopter”. Hence this became derogatory term that was used to refer to all soldiers who were Chinese-educated.
jon getz:
January 20th, 2016 at 3:40 am
i’m a furniture maker and the term dry run has always been used to describe a practice assembly of a piece of furniture with out the glue in the joints i.e. dry.
this may seem odd but in reality glue starts to set very quickly and in many situations (particularly if it is warm) you may only have a few minutes to get everything assembled and the clamps in place. the dry run allows you to set all of the clamps and lay out all of the pieces so that the full glue up runs smoothly. at the best of times glue ups are very stressful (you may have several weeks of work invested in making all the components and cutting all the joints) so anything to reduce the stress is very helpful. i don’t know if this is the true entomology of the phrase but it may be.
hope this helps.
jon
Cylinder-head-nut:
March 27th, 2017 at 7:34 pm
The term ‘dry run’ is often used in engineering, as shown above in the case of printing.
In an automotive sense, internal combustion engines require oil for lubrication. Oil is housed in the ‘sump’ at the bottom of the engine and is pumped to the moving parts to provide lubrication. To initially test an engine in the factory (prior to delivery), sometimes a tiny amount of oil is applied to strategic parts of the engine such as the main bearings, and the engine is started ‘dry’ (without the sump being filled with oil). The engine will be run for a few seconds only before being shut down ready for delivery to the customer, who will then fill the sump with oil prior to use.
A ‘dry run’ such as this in the factory proves the the engine works. I always assumed that THIS was the origin of the term, but it appears it is only one example of a ‘dry run’. Interesting topic. Thank you to all who have commented so far.
Bill Clinton:
April 19th, 2020 at 5:03 pm
Moonshiners and people who transported alcohol illegally made a dry run in a transport vehicle as a decoy to lead revenuers away from the vehicle making the wet run.
The dry vehicle had no alcohol but the wet vehicle did. The movie “Thunder Road” with Robert Mitchum was loosely based on the activities of real life moon runners.
Opinions vary as to whether Shiners were the first to use the terms dry-run and wet-run and whether Shiners caused dry-run to become widely used.