wet

comparative wetter · superlative wettest

1. Made up of liquid or moisture, usually (but not always) water.

   Water is wet.

   Synonyms: wetting

2. Of an object, etc.: covered or impregnated with liquid, usually (but not always) water.

   The baby is wet and needs its nappy changed.

   2 more examples

   I went out in the rain and now my clothes are all wet.

   Parents and small children can stay cool and soaking wet at interactive water playgrounds.

   2013 July 31, Thom Patterson, “How to get soaking wet this summer”, in CNN

   Synonyms: damp, saturated, soaked · Antonyms: dry

3. Of a burrito, sandwich, or other food: covered in a sauce.

   The new item is its first "wet," or sauce-topped, burrito.

   2005, Restaurant business, Volume 104, Issues 1-10

   2 more examples

   A chimichanga (MWCD: 1982) is a burrito that is deep-fried, rather than baked, and is served in the fashion of a wet burrito.

   2000, Robert Allen Palmatier, Food: a dictionary of literal and nonliteral terms, page 372

   But I'm getting the wet burrito.” Ignacio looked down at some sort of a tomato sauce–covered tortilla tube.

   2011, J. Gabriel Gates, Charlene Keel, Dark Territory, page 13

4. Of calligraphy and fountain pens: depositing a large amount of ink from the nib or the feed.

   This pen’s a wet writer, so it’ll feather on this cheap paper.

5. Of a sound recording: having had audio effects applied.
6. Of weather or a time period: rainy.

   It’s going to be wet tomorrow.

   4 more examples

   1637, John Milton, Comus, London: Humphrey Robinson, p. 32, Summer drouth, or singed aire Never scorch thy tresses faire, Nor wet Octobers torrent flood Thy molten crystall fill with mudde,

   “Everybody is interested in extremes – the hottest, the wettest, the windiest – so creating a database of professionally verified records is useful in that fact alone,” says Randall Cerveny from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

   2017 June 15, Hiufu Wong, “11 extreme weather records”, in CNN

   February 2020 was officially the wettest February on record for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the second wettest (behind 1990) for Scotland.

   2020 May 20, Paul Stephen, “NR beats floods to secure tracks to Drax”, in Rail, page 58

   While the study doesn’t directly shed light on why, it suggested that maintaining a similar degree of mobility as the climate changed to the warmer and wetter pattern we have today could have imparted additional stress as the mammoth encountered unfamiliar environments or restricted its movement.

   2021 August 12, Katie Hunt, “Mammoths were the original ‘ice road truckers,’ traveling vast distances across the Arctic”, in CNN

   Synonyms: damp, raining, rainy · Antonyms: dry, sunny

7. aeronauticsUsing afterburners or water injection for increased engine thrust.

   This fighter jet's engine is rated for a maximum wet thrust of 450 kilonewtons, more than twice its max dry thrust, but the afterburner eats up a huge amount of fuel.

8. slangOf a person: inexperienced in a profession or task; having the characteristics of a rookie.

   That guy’s wet; after all, he just started yesterday.

   Synonyms: green, wet behind the ears

9. slangvulgarSexually aroused and thus having the vulva moistened with vaginal secretions.

   He got me all wet.

   1 more example

   I'm gonna get you wet. I'm gonna get you very wet. I know how to do this.

   1980, Paul Schrader, American Gigolo, spoken by Julian Kaye (Richard Gere)

   Synonyms: horny, moist, ablaze, amorous, aroused, buckish, concupiscent, corny

10. UKslangIneffectual, feeble, showing no strength of character.

    Don’t be so wet.

    2 more examples

    "Wet! What currency that bit of slang has—and what awful power. It took me a long time to find out what the word meant, but after long research I think that I know. A man is wet if he isn't a 'regular guy'; he is wet if he isn't 'smooth'; he is wet if he has intellectual interests and lets the mob discover them; and, strangely enough, he is wet by the same token if he is utterly stupid. He is wet if he doesn't show at least a tendency to dissipate, but he isn't wet if he dissipates to excess. A man will be branded as wet for any of these reasons, and once he is so branded, he might as well leave college … "

    1924, Percy Marks, chapter XVII, in The Plastic Age

    I think it’s time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history, about our traditions, and about our culture, and we stopped this general fight of self-recrimination and wetness.

    2020, Boris Johnson quoted in "Proms row: Johnson calls for end to 'cringing embarrassment' over UK history," by Jim Waterson, The Guardian, Aug. 25, 2020

    Synonyms: feeble, hopeless, useless, drip

11. retronymPermitting alcoholic beverages.

    The wet states would be "the greatest beneficiaries" because the amendment would root out the liquor traffic within their cities.

    1995, Richard F. Hamm, Shaping the Eighteenth Amendment

12. archaicslangRefreshed with liquor; drunk.

    c. 1694, Matthew Prior, “Celia to Damon” […] When my lost Lover the tall Ship ascends, / With Musick gay, and wet with Iovial Friends […]

    Synonyms: inebriated, soused, Adrian Quist, adrip, aled up, all mops and brooms, arseholed, a sheet in the wind

13. biologyOf a scientist or laboratory: working with biological or chemical matter.

    Antonyms: dry

14. chemistryEmploying, or done by means of, water or some other liquid.

    the wet extraction of copper, in distinction from dry extraction in which dry heat or fusion is employed

15. euphemisticslangInvolving assassination or "wet work".

    a wet affair; a wet job; wet stuff

16. slangcard gamesOf a board or flop: enabling the creation of many or of strong hands; e.g. containing connectors or suited cards. (Compare dry).
17. colloquialdatedobsoleteOf a Quaker: liberal with respect to religious observance.

    1 more example

    1811. John Adams, Letter to the Boston Patriot, §25. Reprinted in 1856. Charles Francis Adams (ed.), The Life of John Adams, Second President of The United States. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, p. 661. The Catholics thought him almost a Catholic. The Church of England claimed him as one of them. The Presbyterians thought him half a Presbyterian, and the Friends believed him a wet Quaker. The dissenting clergymen in England and America were among the most distinguished asserters and propagators of his renown. Indeed, all sects considered him, and I believe justly, a friend to unlimited toleration in matters of religion.

18. With a usual complement or consummation; potent.

plural wets

1. countableuncountableLiquid or moisture.

   Now the sun, with more effectual beams, / Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet / From drooping plant.

   1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC

2. countableuncountableRainy weather.

   Come in out of the wet.

   1 more example

   Don't go out in the wet.

3. AustraliacountableuncountableRainy season. (often capitalized)

   They'll be in the camp […] before the Wet's out, mark my words.

   1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XI, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, pages 186–7

   3 more examples

   Once the wet kicks in up north, you can be stranded for months waiting for swollen rivers to subside to a crossable depth[.]

   2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 289

   He said he wanted to beat the clouds gathering, before the Wet had properly settled itself over the plains again.

   2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo, published 2012, page 365

   2015, David Andrew, The Complete Guide to Finding the Mammals of Australia, Csiro Publishing, Appendix B, page 380 https://books.google.ca/books?id=XBnyCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Northern Australia is tropical and subject to a prolonged wet season (often called simply 'the Wet') that may last from December to April […] . The Wet features high humidity, heavy rain, flooding that can cut off towns and roads for days on end, and, in most years, violent cyclones that cause high seas, widespread damage and sometimes loss of life.

4. UKcountablederogatoryuncountablegovernmentA moderate Conservative; especially, one who opposed the hard-line policies of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

   Antonyms: dry

5. colloquialcountableuncountableAn alcoholic drink.

   ‘A pity,’ said Jim, ‘I thought we was going to have a free wet.’

   1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 60

6. UScolloquialcountableuncountableOne who supports the consumption of alcohol and thus opposes Prohibition.

   The drys were as unhappy with the second part of the speech as the wets were with the first half.

   c. 1952-1996, Noah S. Sweat, quoted in 1996

7. countablein pluraluncountablehobbiesA tyre for use in wet weather.

   Wets, designed to channel water away from underneath the tyres, maximise grip and minimise the chance of aquaplaning.

   2004, Jonathan Noble, Mark Hughes, Formula One Racing For Dummies, page 303

8. colloquialcountablederogatoryuncountableA weak or sentimental person; a wimp or softie.

   Above all, he [Nigel Molesworth] is his own man, resolutely committed to a view of life that divides his fellow pupils into 'sissies', 'wets', 'swots' and 'old lags'.

   1984, British Book News, page 324

   1 more example

   Rimmer had never been terribly good at sports. In fact, he'd been one of the group of 'wets, weirdos and fatties' who stood by the touchline at ball games, worrying about their chapped legs, and fleeing whenever the ball came near them.

   1990, Grant Naylor, Better Than Life

9. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of wat (“stew or curry eaten in Ethiopia and Eritrea”).

present singular third person wets · participle present wetting · participle past wetted · past wetted

1. transitiveTo cover or impregnate with liquid.

   'Mr Kelly's Car Wash' was a toy made by Remco where a toy car could be automatically wetted, scrubbed and dried.

   1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 90

   1 more example

   There is scanty room for a railway, and in many places the rails are wetted by the spray from the Illecillewaet, which is the Indian word for a raging torrent.

   1941 December, G. H. Soole, “The Mountain Section of the C.P.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 530

   Synonyms: drench, get wet, soak, sog

2. intransitivetransitiveTo make or become wet.

   I try to show emotion, but my eyes won't seem to wet

   2008, “Be Nice To Me”, in I Hate My Friends, performed by The Front Bottoms

   Synonyms: dampen, dew, get wet, moisten

3. transitiveTo make (oneself, clothing, a bed, etc.) wet by accidental urination.

   Johnny wets the bed several times a week.

   1 more example

   She was laughing so hard she wet her pants.

4. transitivesolderingTo form an intermetallic bond between a solder and a metal substrate.
5. informaltransitiveTo celebrate by drinking alcohol.

   to wet the baby’s head

   1 more example

   [He] invited some officers and other gentlemen to dine with him at the Dolphin tavern in Tower street, June 17, 1706, in order to wet his commission […]

   1826, Thomas Bayly Howell, Thomas Jones Howell, A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings

6. Multicultural London EnglishUSslangTo kill or seriously injure.

   I'm coming to get ya, I'm coming to get ya / Spitting out lyrics, homie, I'll wet ya

   1992 May 5, House of Pain, “Jump Around” (track 2), in House of Pain

   Synonyms: do away with, do violence to, abuse, annoy, bewound, damage, damnify, dere

7. misspellingMisspelling of whet.

1. abbreviationacronymcomputingAcronym of write everything twice, a humorous backronym coined to serve as the antonym of DRY, punning on the opposition of wet and dry.

comparative WETter · superlative WETtest

1. computingOf code, having the quality of adhering to the principle of WET; containing much repetition.

   Antonyms: DRY