The drip dry symbol
Three vertical lines in a square: hang it up while it is still dripping. The water weight is doing a job.
Drip dry: Hang it up soaking wet and let it drip — no wringing or spinning first.
What it looks like
A square with three vertical lines inside it — water running down. It is the least intuitive symbol in the drying family, because it asks for the opposite of the reflex: no wringing, no spin cycle, not even a press in a towel. Straight out of the rinse water and onto the hanger, heavy and dripping.
Why the water is the point
On the fabrics that carry this symbol — rayon, some silks, and wrinkle-free or permanent-press shirts — the weight of the draining water pulls the fabric straight while it dries, so the garment smooths itself and needs little or no ironing afterwards. Squeeze that water out first and you set creases into the fibers at the exact moment they are softest and most willing to take a fold.
How to do it without flooding the room
Hang it over the tub, on the shower rod, or on a rack standing in the shower, and give it an hour before you move it anywhere with a floor you care about. Outdoors, hang it where the drip won’t land on something else you are drying. Use a hanger with real shoulders rather than pinch clips — clips leave dents that dry in and stay.
Drip dry keeps company
You will usually find this symbol on a tag that also carries the twisted, crossed-out do not wring mark and a crossed-out dryer. They are three ways of saying one thing: no mechanical force on this fabric while it is wet. Follow all three and the garment dries into its own shape instead of the shape your hands gave it.
Related
Reading a whole tag, not one symbol? Tap everything you see into the decoder — it gives the careful combined plan.