Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who or that which whets or sharpens.
  • noun Specifically, one who indulges in whets or drams; a dram-drinker; a tippler.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who, or that which, whets, sharpens, or stimulates.
  • noun obsolete A tippler; one who drinks whets.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Something that whets. Agent noun of whet

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

whet +‎ -er

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Examples

  • Mai bebbes haev maed teh tun..tunl…crawly spaec tings trew teh hay baels we haz rond deh hows, so teh stay teh warm and dri in teh cold whetter.

    PEEPING TOMCAT - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • The best arguments for insisting on specific intent and express advocacy of unlawful acts are: (a) to avoid chilling speakers who may otherwise be unsure whetter their speech will be protected and (b) to reduce the likelihood of the "heckler's veto" (that is, the danger that if people can cause speakers to be punished by behaving badly, they will be encouraged to behave badly in order to suppress speakers they don't like).

    Geoffrey R. Stone: The Answer to "A First Amendment Exam Question" 2008

  • In many restaurants they would bring it as an appetite-whetter.

    Pa amb tomàquet, and learning some lessons from MacGuiver. Michele 2005

  • When you see them you know what you want; and a half-dozen raw, with a simple salad dressing, were little more than a whetter on the blockade.

    From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life 1877

  • An excellent proverb, the veracity of which is daily attested; for, however unpleasant a keen wind may be, there is no doubt of its being a marvellous whetter of that greatest of Heaven's blessings -- an appetite.

    Pelham — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • "Ah, your honour!" said he, "good wine is a marvellous whetter of the intellect; but your true philosopher is always moderate: for my part, I never exceed my two bottles."

    Pelham — Volume 07 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • An excellent proverb, the veracity of which is daily attested; for, however unpleasant a keen wind may be, there is no doubt of its being a marvellous whetter of that greatest of Heaven's blessings -- an appetite.

    Pelham — Volume 06 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • "Ah, your honour!" said he, "good wine is a marvellous whetter of the intellect; but your true philosopher is always moderate: for my part, I never exceed my two bottles."

    Pelham — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • My first visit had been hasty, and only as a whetter to the second.

    A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume One Thomas Frognall Dibdin 1811

  • Saint Andrew is a quiet place, where I have ta'en my whetter now and then, when I lodged in the neighbourhood of the Temple with Lord

    The Fortunes of Nigel Walter Scott 1801

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