dryer

See also: Dryer

English

A modern front-load tumble clothes dryer for home application

A hair dryer

Alternative forms

drier

Usage notes

In both British and American English, the spelling drier is preferred for the comparative adjective and dryer for the noun.

Pronunciation

(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹaɪɚ/, [ˈd͡ʒɹaɪɚ]
(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɹaɪə/
Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Middle English driere, dreyere (“one who dries”), equivalent to dry +‎ -er (“agent suffix”).

Noun

dryer (plural dryers)

One who, or that which, dries; a desiccative.
The sun and a northwesterly wind are great driers of the earth.
A household appliance that removes the water from clothing by accelerating evaporation, usually though heat and a tumbling motion.
An electric hair dryer.
Any other device or facility, household or industrial, designed to remove water or humidity.
- 2004 December 17, Evgenii D. Moniushko, From Leningrad to Hungary: Notes of a Red Army Soldier, 1941-1946, Routledge, →ISBN, page 51:
  At that time, father, brother and I worked as night watchmen at the grain dryer. It was a large and complicated structure built out in the steppe. It consisted of a wooden tower with swinging shelves attached to the inside walls, […]
A catalyst used to promote the drying of paints and varnishes by oxidative crosslinking.

Synonyms

(household appliance for drying clothing): clothes dryer, tumble dryer
(hair dryer):

Hyponyms

(other drying device): dehumidifier

Derived terms

blow dryer
blow-dryer
dryer sheet
hair-dryer
hand dryer
jet dryer
spin dryer
tumbler dryer
washer-dryer

Translations

household appliance for drying clothing

Azerbaijani: quruducu
Bulgarian: суши́лня f (sušílnja)
Catalan: assecadora (ca) f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 烘乾機／烘干机 (zh) (hōnggānjī), 乾衣機／干衣机 (zh) (gānyījī)
Czech: sušička (cs) f
Danish: tørretumbler (da) c
Dutch: droger (nl)
Finnish: kuivuri, kuivain, kuivausrumpu (fi)
French: sèche-linge (fr) m, sécheuse (fr) f
Georgian: საშრობი (sašrobi)
German: Wäschetrockner (de) m, Trockner (de) m
Hebrew: מייבש כביסה‎ (he) m (meyabésh k'visá)
Icelandic: þurrkari m
Irish: triomadóir m
Italian: essiccatoio m
Japanese: 衣類乾燥機 (いるいかんそうき, irui kansōki), 乾燥機 (ja) (かんそうき, kansōki)
Korean: 빨래 건조기 (ppallae geonjogi), 건조기 (geonjogi)
Mongolian: хатаагч (mn) (xataagč)
Norman: s'tcheux m
Norwegian: tørketrommel (no) m
Polish: suszarka (pl) f
Portuguese: secadora f
Russian: суши́льная маши́на f (sušílʹnaja mašína), суши́лка (ru) f (sušílka) (для белья́)
Serbo-Croatian:
Roman: sušilo (sh) n, sušilica f, sušionik m
Spanish: secadora (es) f
Swedish: torktumlare (sv) c
Tagalog: patuyuan
Tibetan: དུག་སློག་སྐམ་ཡག་འཕྲུལ་འཁོར (dug slog skam yag 'phrul 'khor)
Turkish: kurutucu (tr)
Ukrainian: суша́рка (uk) f (sušárka)
Uzbek: qurituvchi
Welsh: sychwr (cy) m

hairdryer — see hairdryer

any device that removes humidity

Esperanto: sekigilo
Portuguese: secador (pt) m
Spanish: secador m, secadora (es) f
Tibetan: སྐམ་ཡག་འཕྲུལ་འཁོར (skam yag 'phrul 'khor)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Georgian: ^{(please verify)} საშრობი (sašrobi)

Etymology 2

dry +‎ -er (“comparative suffix”)

Adjective

dryer

(US) comparative form of dry: more dry

Anagrams

Derry, Ryder, derry, redry, ryder