to go dry

[beachboy]

Can I say that a musician went dry, meaning that, after some time, he stopped writing hits or lost the inspiration? How else could I say that?

 

[emsr2d2]

Can I say that a musician went dry, meaning that, after some time, he stopped writing hits or lost the inspiration? How else could I say that?

I would suggest that "his ideas dried up", as opposed to him becoming dry!
If he only lost inspiration for a short time, you can say that he suffered "a dry spell" perhaps.

 

[BobK]

:up: If you changed the context a bit you could use 'dry up', but it's usually things that dry up (and husbands perhaps, on Christmas day ;-)). For example, a river can 'dry up' (or 'run dry').

(A related - but irrelevant - bit of vocabulary refers only to actors. When they forget their lines they are said to 'dry': He was fine in rehearsals, but in front of a paying audience he just dried. Maybe this is a bit of actors' jargon from my mis-spent youth.)

b

 

[Barb_D]

And here I was thinking it had something to do with giving up alcohol!