[Vocabulary] Dry or dry up

[TitoBr]

Hello!

After washing your hands you dry them, you dry them up, both are possible or you even say something else?

Cheers,
Tito!

 

[Route21]

As an NES but not a teacher, I would dry them.
A source of water, such as a well/borehole might dry up.

Regards
R21

 

[Tdol]

I would dry them too.

 

[emsr2d2]

We dry our hands, faces, feet, clothes and anything else which has been made temporarily wet. There is one exception in BrE - after we "wash up" (wash the dirty dishes after a meal), we "dry up" (take the water off the wet dishes using a "drying up cloth" or "tea towel"). I think all those terms are different in AmE, by the way.

 

[SoothingDave]

We would dry the dishes. With a dish towel (or tea towel, but that seems to be old fashioned). After we washed the dishes (or just "did the dishes.")

 

[emsr2d2]

Am I right that if you say "Wash up please" to someone in AmE, it means "Please go and wash your hands (before eating)"?

 

[SoothingDave]

Am I right that if you say "Wash up please" to someone in AmE, it means "Please go and wash your hands (before eating)"?

Yes.

You would have to ask someone to "do the dishes" (or "wash the dishes") if you wanted the "washing up" done.

 

[BobK]

And to add a bit of complexity, when in BE you're choosing (between a number of people) who's going to wash up/do the washing up and who's going to do th drying up, the normal question is '[Do you want to] wash or dry?'.

b