wet the shamrock

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

1. IrelandidiomaticinformalintransitiveTo go for an alcoholic drink, especially as part of a victory celebration or on Saint Patrick's Day.

   He [Caleb Threlkeld] refers to the custom of wetting the shamrock.

   1878 March 16, “The Library. St Patrick’s Day.”, in The Bazaar, the Exchange and Mart, and Journal of the Household, volume XVIII, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 173, column 3

   5 more examples

   The Meadovv Trefoyls are called in Iriſh Shamrocks, […] The VVord Seamar Leaune and Seamar-orge, being in ſignification the ſame, […] This Plant is vvorn by the People in their Hats upon the 17. Day of March yearly, (vvhich is called St. Patrick’s Day.) […] Hovvever that be, vvhen they vvet their Seamar-oge, they often commit Exceſs in Liquor, vvhich is not a right keeping of a Day to the Lord; Error generally leading to Debauchery.

   [1727, Caleb Threlkeld, “TRIFOLIUM PRATENSE ALBUM, White Flowered Meadow Trefoyl.”, in Synopsis stirpium Hibernicarum alphabetic[a]e dispositarum. Sive commentatio de plantis indigenis præsertim Dublinensibus instituta. Being a Short Treatise of Native Plants, especially Such as Grow Spontaneously in the Vicinity of Dublin; […], Dublin: […] S. Powell, for the author; and are to be sold by T. Sanders, […], →OCLC, signature [K8], verso

   In the days of our forefathers it was always customary to wet the shamrock, and indeed this good old custom has by no means become obsolete. And to carry it into effect, the saint's [Saint Patrick's] health is drunk in the morning from a brimming bowl called "Paddy's pot," which has a very inspiring influence, and is considered to be an excellent preliminary for the joys of the day; […]

   1869 March 13, R. C., “Notes. St. Patrick’s Day: The Shamrock and Shillelah”, in Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, etc., volume III (4th Series), number 63, London: […] George Andrew Spottiswoode, […] [for] William Greig Smith, […], →OCLC, page 235, column 1

   We remembered friends at home in our potations, wet the shamrock, and sang the "Wearing of the Green."

   1885, James McQuade, “St. Kitt’s”, in The Cruise of the Montauk to Bermuda, the West Indies and Florida, New York, N.Y.: Thomas R. Knox & Co. successors to James Miller […], →OCLC, page 120

   St. Patrick's Day passed off very quietly indeed, partly owing to the uncertainty of the weather. A number of the militia men wetted the shamrock so much that they forgot the legitimate use of their weapons, and employed them in knocking people on the head. A few threw their rifles away.

   1888 May, “News and Notes. The Month.”, in The Australian Journal: A Family Newspaper of Literature, Science, and the Arts, volume XXIII, number 276, Melbourne, Vic.: A. H. Massina & Co., […], →OCLC, page 519, column 1

   Given long-standing drinking customs among the Irish at home and abroad, temperance was a difficult prospect. Traditions such as drinking to the health of Ireland and the patron saint, as well as the renowned ‘wetting the shamrock’ held considerable sway on St Patrick's Day.

   2002, Mike Cronin, Daryl Adair, “Famine and Exodus”, in The Wearing of the Green: A History of St Patrick’s Day, London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2006, →ISBN, page 40