keep one's powder dry

• keep the powder dry

From the maxim “trust in God and keep your powder dry”, attributed to English statesman Oliver Cromwell; in the days of muskets, soldiers needed to keep their bags of gunpowder dry so they could load their guns at short notice.

keep one's powder dry (third-person singular simple present keeps one's powder dry, present participle keeping one's powder dry, simple past and past participle kept one's powder dry)

1. To hold back on action until a future time; to save one's resources in case of emergency.
   • 1904, John Morley, Hansard‎^[1]:

     […] events now happening, which, beyond almost any set of circumstances which have arisen in our recent history, impose the necessity on Great Britain, at all events, of keeping her powder dry, and of keeping her resources in steadfast charge.

   • 2014 July 1, Noah Feldman, “Alito's Day in Court”, in BloombergView‎^[2], archived from the original on 25 August 2014:

     He’d for the most part refrained from any dramatic concurrences or dissents—as though keeping his powder dry for Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, the biggest religious-liberty decision in years.

   • 2025 May 13, Richard Fausset, quoting Louis Prevost, “The Pope’s Florida Brother, a MAGA Disciple, Plans to ‘Tone It Down’”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     Another post written by Mr. Prevost, according to The Daily Beast, told people to “Keep [their] powder dry,” because there is a “war right here at home, a war for our streets and neighborhoods.”