The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word EMACIATE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
E
M
A
C
I
A
T
E
More clues leading to the result EMACIATE
- I came back and consumed waste
- Make abnormally thin eastern spies tuck into tea
- Greek character, one arrived from the south, to get very thin
- Waste last of the burgerI was consuming
- Waste energy on coat I took in
- Dined after I arrived, about to waste away
- Apparently I returned and consumed waste
- Make thin mice eat a soup
- Weaken English spies infiltrating China
- English friend carrying American agency’s waste away
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "dry up" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case dry up = emaciate.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.