- Meaning
- This idiom advises staying prepared, cautious, and ready for action, ensuring one’s resources or resolve are preserved for the right moment, as if keeping gunpowder dry to ensure it can ignite when needed. It conveys a call for strategic patience and readiness, used in military, professional, or personal contexts to emphasize foresight and discipline. The phrase carries a tone of vigilance, wisdom, or urgency, reflecting cultural values of preparedness and tactical timing, particularly in high-stakes or uncertain situations. It resonates in environments where conserving strength or resources is critical, capturing the human need to balance action with restraint. The idiom often evokes a sense of historical gravitas, linking modern challenges to past struggles where readiness was a matter of survival.
- Origin
- The phrase originates from 17th-century England, tied to military contexts where soldiers using muskets needed dry gunpowder to fire effectively, especially in damp conditions. It is famously attributed to Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War (1642–1651), reportedly telling troops at the Battle of Edgehill to ‘put your trust in God, but keep your powder dry.’ While the quote’s authenticity is debated, it appeared in print by 1834 in a *London Times* article recounting the anecdote. The idiom gained traction in 19th-century Britain, reflecting martial and imperial culture, as seen in Rudyard Kipling’s *Kim* (1901), which celebrates strategic readiness. Its use grew in American English during the Civil War, amplified by military memoirs and Mark Twain’s *A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court* (1889), which echoes martial themes. The phrase’s adoption in 20th-century business and political discourse, particularly during World War II and Cold War strategizing, ensured its global spread. Its vivid imagery, rooted in the tangible need for dry gunpowder, and its applicability to preparedness in any challenging context guaranteed its enduring use across English-speaking cultures, from battlefields to boardrooms.
- Variants
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- Keep your powder dry
- Hold your powder dry
- Keep the powder dry
- Stay powder dry
- Examples
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- Keep your powder dry—we may need to act quickly if the deal falls through.
- Hold your powder dry until we have all the facts about the merger.
- Keep the powder dry, team; don’t commit resources until the market stabilizes.
- Stay powder dry during negotiations; we don’t want to reveal our strategy too soon.
- She kept her powder dry, saving her best arguments for the final debate.
- Keep your powder dry for the big presentation—you’ll need all your energy.
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