TO BE DRY AS A LIME-BASKET, verb. phr. (common).—To be very dry; TO SPIT SIXPENCES (q.v.). Also to have HOT COPPERS (q.v.).
1838. DICKENS, Oliver Twist, ch. xviii. He ‘wished he might be busted if he warn’t AS DRY AS A LIME-BASKET.’
1892. HUME NISBET, The Bushranger’s Sweetheart, 136. ‘That infernal swanky has left me AS DRY AS A LIME KILN,’ cried out my companion.
