"dry powder" meaning in English

See dry powder in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: dry powders [plural]
Etymology: The financial sense comes by metaphor from the gunpowder sense. Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} dry powder (countable and uncountable, plural dry powders)
  1. A powder found in a fire extinguisher that is expelled to smother the fire (in contrast with liquid types of extinguisher). Tags: countable, uncountable Translations (powder from a fire extinguisher): Löschpulver [neuter] (German)
    Sense id: en-dry_powder-en-noun-uCHztph0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 46 11 33 10 Disambiguation of 'powder from a fire extinguisher': 77 5 11 7
  2. A powder found in an inhaler that delivers a bronchodilator for antiasthmatic or antiemphysemic purposes (indications). Tags: countable, uncountable
    Sense id: en-dry_powder-en-noun-xuXaUz~s
  3. (finance) Cash (or cash-like securities) kept in reserve in case of need. Tags: countable, uncountable Categories (topical): Finance Related terms (stay prepared, maintain reserves): keep one's powder dry
    Sense id: en-dry_powder-en-noun-iAR3lV3Z Topics: business, finance Disambiguation of 'stay prepared, maintain reserves': 20 16 48 16
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dry, powder; especially, gunpowder kept dry to keep it from spoiling before use. Tags: countable, uncountable Derived forms: dry powder inhaler
    Sense id: en-dry_powder-en-noun-5wdUlnH5

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for dry powder meaning in English (2.6kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "The financial sense comes by metaphor from the gunpowder sense.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dry powders",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "dry powder (countable and uncountable, plural dry powders)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "46 11 33 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A powder found in a fire extinguisher that is expelled to smother the fire (in contrast with liquid types of extinguisher)."
      ],
      "id": "en-dry_powder-en-noun-uCHztph0",
      "links": [
        [
          "fire extinguisher",
          "fire extinguisher"
        ],
        [
          "fire",
          "fire"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "77 5 11 7",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "powder from a fire extinguisher",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Löschpulver"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A powder found in an inhaler that delivers a bronchodilator for antiasthmatic or antiemphysemic purposes (indications)."
      ],
      "id": "en-dry_powder-en-noun-xuXaUz~s",
      "links": [
        [
          "inhaler",
          "inhaler"
        ],
        [
          "bronchodilator",
          "bronchodilator"
        ],
        [
          "antiasthmatic",
          "antiasthmatic"
        ],
        [
          "antiemphysemic",
          "antiemphysemic"
        ],
        [
          "indication",
          "indication"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Finance",
          "orig": "en:Finance",
          "parents": [
            "Business",
            "Economics",
            "Society",
            "Social sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Private equity firms were sitting on more than $1 trillion in dry powder at the end of 2011.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Cash (or cash-like securities) kept in reserve in case of need."
      ],
      "id": "en-dry_powder-en-noun-iAR3lV3Z",
      "links": [
        [
          "finance",
          "finance#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "Cash",
          "cash"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(finance) Cash (or cash-like securities) kept in reserve in case of need."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "20 16 48 16",
          "sense": "stay prepared, maintain reserves",
          "word": "keep one's powder dry"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "finance"
      ]
    },
    {
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "24 25 0 51",
          "word": "dry powder inhaler"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dry, powder; especially, gunpowder kept dry to keep it from spoiling before use."
      ],
      "id": "en-dry_powder-en-noun-5wdUlnH5",
      "links": [
        [
          "dry",
          "dry#English"
        ],
        [
          "powder",
          "powder#English"
        ],
        [
          "gunpowder",
          "gunpowder"
        ],
        [
          "dry",
          "dry#Adjective"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dry powder"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "dry powder inhaler"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "The financial sense comes by metaphor from the gunpowder sense.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dry powders",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "dry powder (countable and uncountable, plural dry powders)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "sense": "stay prepared, maintain reserves",
      "word": "keep one's powder dry"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A powder found in a fire extinguisher that is expelled to smother the fire (in contrast with liquid types of extinguisher)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "fire extinguisher",
          "fire extinguisher"
        ],
        [
          "fire",
          "fire"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A powder found in an inhaler that delivers a bronchodilator for antiasthmatic or antiemphysemic purposes (indications)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "inhaler",
          "inhaler"
        ],
        [
          "bronchodilator",
          "bronchodilator"
        ],
        [
          "antiasthmatic",
          "antiasthmatic"
        ],
        [
          "antiemphysemic",
          "antiemphysemic"
        ],
        [
          "indication",
          "indication"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "en:Finance"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Private equity firms were sitting on more than $1 trillion in dry powder at the end of 2011.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Cash (or cash-like securities) kept in reserve in case of need."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "finance",
          "finance#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "Cash",
          "cash"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(finance) Cash (or cash-like securities) kept in reserve in case of need."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "finance"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dry, powder; especially, gunpowder kept dry to keep it from spoiling before use."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "dry",
          "dry#English"
        ],
        [
          "powder",
          "powder#English"
        ],
        [
          "gunpowder",
          "gunpowder"
        ],
        [
          "dry",
          "dry#Adjective"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "powder from a fire extinguisher",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Löschpulver"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dry powder"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.