to dry one's eyes

4.2

Stop crying and feel calm again

phrasal verb

Informal

: secarse las lágrimas

When she saw her friend crying, she handed her a tissue and said, 'It's time to dry your eyes and move on.'

Examples

Here, dry your eyes.

Day Shift (2022)
Dry your eyes.

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
Now dry your eyes, and let's go home.

Watchmen (2009)
Now then, dry your eyes, then change into your tunic.

The Boy Friend (1971)
Better dry your eyes.

Conflict (1945)
Dry your eyes, sir.

Oliver Twist (2005)
Dry your eyes, baby.

Notorious (1946)
Dry your eyes, toots.

Pearl Harbor (2001)
After the sad movie, she took a deep breath and dried her eyes before leaving the theater.
He had to dry his eyes before giving his speech, as he was still feeling emotional.

Synonyms

to pull oneself together

vsto dry one's eyes

Informal

81 5.1

Get control of your feelings and calm down after being upset

stops crying as well as restoring composure

to blink away

vsto dry one's eyes

1 5.7

To hold back tears by quickly closing your eyes

focuses more on physical action than on emotional control

to blink back tears

vsto dry one's eyes

1 4.9

To try to stop crying by blinking quickly

also includes calming and restoring emotional control

Antonyms

to cry

∞ 1.0

To let tears fall because you feel sad or hurt

Surface Forms

dry one's eyes infinitive

dried one's eyes past

dried one's eyes past participle

drying one's eyes present participle

dries one's eyes third person singular

Morphology

dry + one's + eye

The meaning 'to stop crying and regain one's composure' is directly and transparently derivable from combining 'dry' (to remove moisture) with 'one's eyes' (the eyes that have tears). The physical action of drying tears naturally implies stopping crying and calming down, and similar expressions exist cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer this meaning.

Etymology

Dry one's eyes comes from the simple image of using a cloth or sleeve to dry your eyes after crying. So the phrase means 'to stop crying' and 'calm down'.