wet Hear it!

wet Definition

wet (wet)

adjective wet′·ter, wet′·test

  1. moistened, covered, or saturated with water or other liquid
  2. rainy; foggy; misty a wet day
  3. not yet dry wet paint
  4. preserved or bottled in a liquid
  5. using water; done with or in water or other liquid wet sanding
  6. ☆ permitting or favoring the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages; opposing prohibition a wet candidate, wet town
  7. Brit., Informal weak, ineffectual, insipid, etc.

Etymology: ME < OE wæt, akin to ON vatr: for IE base see water

noun

  1. water or other liquid; moisture
  2. rain or rainy weather come in out of the wet
  3. ☆ Informal a person who favors the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages; one opposed to prohibition
  4. Brit., Informal
    1. a person considered weak, ineffectual, insipid, etc.
    2. a Conservative who is moderate or willing to compromise

transitive verb, intransitive verb wet or wet′·ted, wet′·ting

  1. to make or become wet: often with through or down
  2. to make (a bed, oneself, etc.) wet by urination

wet Related Forms
wet′ly adverb wet′·ness noun
wet Idioms

all wet

☆

Slang wrong; mistaken

wet behind the ears

Informal young and inexperienced; immature

wet Synonyms

wet

modif.

  1. Covered or soaked with liquid

    moist, damp, soaking, soaked, drenched, soggy, muggy, dewy, watery, dank, slimy, dripping, saturated, waterlogged, sodden.

    Antonyms dry*, dried, clean*.

  2. Rainy

    drizzly, slushy, snowy, slippery, muddy, humid, foggy, damp, clammy, showery, stormy, drizzling, cloudy, misty.

    Antonyms clear*, sunny, cloudless.

  3. *Favoring or permitting liquor

    open, antiprohibitionist, pro-repeal, alcoholic, serving liquor.

  4. *Mistaken

    inaccurate, misled, in error; see mistaken 1, wrong 2.

wet is applied to something covered or soaked with water or other liquid wet streets, clothes, etc. or to something not yet dry wet paint; damp implies slight, usually undesirable or unpleasant wetness a damp room; dank suggests a disagreeable, chilling, unwholesome dampness a dank fog; moist implies slight but, unlike damp, often desirable wetness moist air; humid implies such permeation of the air with moisture as to make for discomfort a hot, humid day

wet Synonyms

wet

v.

sprinkle, dampen, soak, splash; see moisten.

wet Usage Examples

Object

  • bed: They describe how they feel guilty that they must have done something wrong for their child to still be wetting the bed.
  • agent: The influence of wetting agents on structure will be ascertained.

Preposition: with

  • dew: Walking boots ( conditions may be wet with early morning dew so wellingtons optional ).
  • rain: Summers are hot and dry, winters are relatively wet with most rain falling in November and December.

Modifying Another Word

  • exceptionally: This follows an exceptionally wet winter which slowed coal production in the first four months of the financial year.
  • seasonally: Wet woodlands comprise mainly alder, willow and downy birch growing on waterlogged or seasonally wet soils.
  • excessively: Good walking boots are usually sufficient, unless the weather has been excessively wet.
  • unusually: We've found that this regrowth rarely achieves maturity, and only in unusually wet areas is repeat action necessary.

Modifies a noun

  • weather: Will they perch openly in wet weather or take some shelter?
  • heath: Dry heath, wet heath and mire communities are all represented at the site.
  • grassland: The first meadow leads steeply down to a vale of wet grassland.
  • woodland: The substitution of a pond for a wet woodland, is not ' eco ' .
  • meadow: Many of the wet meadows are managed by the traditional method of grazing with cattle.
  • suit: To be competitive you'll need the buoyancy of a wet suit.

Used with adjective complement

  • soak: You lay, soaking wet, in a small hollow in the corner of a ruined building.
  • drip: On his return, he opened the door and stood before his wife dripping wet.
  • get: ILL EFFECTS of hair cutting, head getting wet, walking in wind.
  • stay: Significantly enhanced, Digital Watercolor paint now stays wet between sessions, enabling users to start one session where the last one ended.
  • throw: For a small donation the general public can throw wet sponges at the contestant of their choice.
  • become: The cave can become extremely wet in bad weather!
wet Quotes

What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

—Hopkins, SirAnthony

Whenever the moon and stars are set, Whenever the wind is high, All night long in the dark and wet, A man goes riding by. Late in the night when the fires are out, Why does he gallop and gallop about?

—Stevenson, Robert Louis

Let's get out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini.

—Anonymous

The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.

—Pound, Ezra Loomis