Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Covered or soaked with a liquid, such as water.
- adjective Not yet dry or firm.
- adjective Stored in or prepared with water or other liquids.
- adjective Characterized by the use or presence of water or liquid reagents.
- adjective Involving the performance of experiments rather than the design or analysis of them.
- adjective Rainy, humid, or foggy.
- adjective Characterized by frequent or heavy precipitation.
- adjective Informal Allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages.
- noun Something that wets; moisture.
- noun Rainy or snowy weather.
- noun Informal One who supports the legality of the production and sale of alcoholic beverages.
- intransitive verb To make wet; dampen.
- intransitive verb To make (a bed or one's clothes) wet by urinating.
- intransitive verb To become wet.
- intransitive verb To urinate.
- idiom (all wet) Entirely mistaken.
- idiom (wet behind the ears) Inexperienced; green.
- idiom (wet (one's) whistle) To take a drink.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Covered with or permeated by a moist or fluid substance; charged with moisture: as, a wet sponge; wet land; wet cheeks; a wet painting (one on which the paint is still semi-fluid).
- Filled with or containing a supply of water: as, a wet dock; a wet meter. See phrases below.
- Consisting of water or other liquid; of a watery nature.
- Characterized by rain; rainy; drizzly; showery: as, wet weather; a wet season (used especially with reference to tropical or semitropical countries, in which the year is divided into wet and dry seasons).
- Drenched or drunk with liquor; tipsy.
- In U. S. polit. slang, opposed to prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors: as, a wet town. Compare
dry , 13. - To make wet; moisten, drench, or soak with water or other fluid; dip or soak in a liquid.
- To moisten with drink; hence, figuratively, to inaugurate or celebrate by a drink or a treat of liquor: as, to
wet a new hat. - noun That which makes wet, as water and other liquids; moisture; specifically, rain.
- noun The act of wetting; specifically, a wetting of the throat with drink; a drink or dram of liquor; indulgence in drinking.
- noun In U. S. polit. slang, an opponent of prohibition; one who favors the traffic in liquor.
- noun A Middle English form of
wit .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Containing, or consisting of, water or other liquid; moist; soaked with a liquid; having water or other liquid upon the surface
- adjective Very damp; rainy.
- adjective (Chem.) Employing, or done by means of, water or some other liquid.
- adjective Slang Refreshed with liquor; drunk.
- adjective etc. See under
Blanket ,Dock , etc. - adjective [Slang] intoxicating liquors.
- noun Water or wetness; moisture or humidity in considerable degree.
- noun Rainy weather; foggy or misty weather.
- noun Slang A dram; a drink.
- transitive verb To fill or moisten with water or other liquid; to sprinkle; to cause to have water or other fluid adherent to the surface; to dip or soak in a liquid
- transitive verb [Colloq.] to moisten one's throat; to drink a dram of liquor.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of an object, etc, covered with or impregnated with liquid.
- adjective Of weather or a day,
rainy . - adjective Made up of
liquid ormoisture . - adjective informal Of a person,
ineffectual . - adjective slang Of a woman or girl,
sexually aroused . - adjective slang, of a person
Inexperienced in a task or profession; having the characteristics of arookie .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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This was a term wet propagandists had found convenient in their effort to stamp the mark of greed on Prohibition supporters like Asa Candler of Coca-Cola.
LAST CALL DANIEL OKRENT 2010
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This was a term wet propagandists had found convenient in their effort to stamp the mark of greed on Prohibition supporters like Asa Candler of Coca-Cola.
LAST CALL DANIEL OKRENT 2010
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They move like this, and you know, you hear the term wet storm, dry storms.
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Liam Hartz, a Marshfield charter school student, used the phrase wet fur'' to describe the rays' exterior.
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The Lord will rain for ever and ever, and, on that day, the Earth shall be wet and His name wet.
Getting Godless Bill Yarrow 2011
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Their house specialty was what they called a wet burrito.
The L.A. ban on new fast food restaurants in poor neighborhoods. Ann Althouse 2008
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It's what we call a wet wing, which means gasoline is in the wing tank in the wing itself.
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It's what we call a wet wing, which means gasoline is in the wing tank, in the wing itself.
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It's what we call a wet wing, which means gasoline is in the wing tank in the wing itself and in reality, we were able to get that.
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I can see that there's a watery reflection down here, so the houseboats that you see here are what we call wet-slipped boats, which means they are actually in the water all the time.
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However, this WET (“Write Everything Twice”) design is not the real API design antipattern I want to discuss.
API Design Antipattern: Leaky Abstractions David Biesack 2025
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His attacker survived but, fearing reprisal, Evan left the camp and moved in with a woman who was living in a “wet house” – a community where drug addicts live together.
My friend was a popular, promising artist - how did he end up on the streets of Portland, addicted and dangerous? Laura Barton 2024
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This June, r/collapse was busy discussing the developing conflict between Iran and Israel, as well as “wet bulbs” (a far more humid and deadly type of heatwave), the millions of air conditioners being bought in India as temperatures rise and Trump’s plan to end Fema.
On r/collapse, people are ‘kept abreast of the latest doom’. Its moderators say it’s not for everyone Sam Wolfson 2025
adoarns commented on the word wet
In medicine, refers to someone that is fluid-overloaded, as from heart failure. "I got called on a patient having trouble breathing. When I examined her, she sounded wet, so I gave her some Lasix."
January 26, 2008