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Reader question: Please explain “keep his powder dry” in this sentence: “When you tell someone to keep his powder dry, you are asking him to remain calm and be ready for action.” Why? What powder? My comments: Powder refers to gunpowder. One time in history, before the mid-19th century in fact, rifles and guns were powered by gunpowder, an explosive made from mixing of chemicals including sulfur and charcoal as fuels. In the old days soldiers keep a bag of powders as today’s soldiers carry a supply of metal bullets as ammunition. And in those old days, golden days if you ask me where weapons of mass destruction is concerned, soldiers had to take great care not get the powers wet because wet powders wouldn’t lit. It’d be too late for a soldier to realize that his powers were wet in the middle of a battle. He would have to call time out like he was in a sports game and ask the enemies to hold fire for a moment so that he could step out of the shade, get into the sun and air his powder for a while. That’s a scene perhaps too melodramatic for our purpose here, but you get the picture – the war zone is different from a sports field. No timeouts are allowed for drying powders. Hence, the necessity to keep your powder dry, always. It means you’re making the right preparations before a battle and are always ready to fight. It is a British expression. It rains a lot in Britain and so it makes sense for British soldiers to always make sure that their powers are dry. | 
