Drought stress and water deficiency is the status quo in western arid region of Liaoning province. To provide theoretical basis for reasonable irrigation, effects of short time and continuous drought stress on the growth, yield and water use efficiency of maize were studied with ‘Danyu 77’ as the test material under controlled irrigation. The results showed that the growth and yield of maize were restrained by drought stress, and the situation was the worst in continuous drought stress, in which the maximum reduction of yield reached 42.6%. Seedling stage, elongation stage and heading stage of plant growth were susceptible to drought stress, while during the grain filling stage, the adverse effects were not significant. Water use efficiency of the treatments ranged from 2.2 to 3.23 kg·m^-3, and in following order: continuous drought from seedling to elongation stage ＞ ck ＞ drought in grain filling stage ＞ continuous drought from elongation to heading stage =seedling stage drought ＞ continuous drought from heading to grain filling stage ＞ elongation stage drought ＞heading stage drought. WUE decreased as drought stress happened during elongation stage to heading stage.Though WUE increased in continuous drought stress, but crop production reduced substantially. When the water resource is scarce for irrigation in the research area, for balancing food production and WUE, appropriate drought stress in grain filling stage is recommended.