dry run

noun
1.
a rehearsal or practice exercise.
2.
Military. practice in firing arms without using live ammunition.
Origin
1940-45, Americanism
Related forms
dry-run, adjective
Examples from the web for dry run
  • The first interview would be a dry run for her other two interviews.
  • It's a dry run that simulates flights while the airplane is on the ground.
  • So in a way it was a dry run, a drill, a test of the training and the systems in place to respond to a genuine disaster.
  • If you are concerned than do a dry run by checking the equipment and materials or a pilot test with a volunteer participant.
  • If you find someone monitoring a police radio frequency and recording emergency response times, you may be observing a dry run.
British Dictionary definitions for dry run

dry run

noun
1.
(military) practice in weapon firing, a drill, or a manoeuvre without using live ammunition
2.
(informal) a trial or practice, esp in simulated conditions; rehearsal
Slang definitions & phrases for dry run

dry run

noun phrase

A tryout, practice version, or rehearsal of something planned: One more dry run, then tomorrow we do it (1940s+)

verb

: so the medical staff could ''dry run'' their equipment


dry run in Technology
programming
To execute a program by hand, writing values of variables and other run-time data on paper, in order to check its operation and control flow or to track down a bug (as part of debugging). A dry run is an extreme form of desk check or code review and is practical only for fairly simple programs, small amounts of data and simple external interfaces. It was often performed off-line using a hardcopy of the source code.
Dry runs were common practice in the days when access to computers was limited but the availability of screen editors and fast compilers makes debugging by printf a more productive method in most cases. Sophisticated debuggers that allow you to get the computer to step through your source code line by line and show values of variables make even this unnecessary.
(2006-11-27)
Idioms and Phrases with dry run

dry run

A trial exercise or rehearsal, as in Regard this as a dry run for tonight's ceremony. This term, using dry in the sense of “unproductive,” was at first employed mainly in the military for simulated bombings in which no bombs were dropped. [ c. 1940 ]