WET (wetted, wetter, wettest, wetting)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: wetted    , wetter    , wettest    , wetting   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wet mean? 

• WET (noun)
  The noun WET has 1 sense:

1. wetness caused by water

  Familiarity information: WET used as a noun is very rare.

• WET (adjective)
  The adjective WET has 6 senses:

1. covered or soaked with a liquid such as water

2. containing moisture or volatile components

3. supporting or permitting the legal production and sale of alcoholic beverages

4. producing or secreting milk

5. consisting of or trading in alcoholic liquor

6. very drunk

  Familiarity information: WET used as an adjective is common.

• WET (verb)
  The verb WET has 2 senses:

1. cause to become wet

2. make one's bed or clothes wet by urinating

  Familiarity information: WET used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WET (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wetness caused by water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

moisture; wet

Context example:

drops of wet gleamed on the window

Hypernyms ("wet" is a kind of...):

wetness (the condition of containing or being covered by a liquid (especially water))

Derivation:

wet (cause to become wet)

wet (containing moisture or volatile components)

• WET (adjective)

Comparative: wetter   
Superlative: wettest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Covered or soaked with a liquid such as water

Context example:

wet weather

Similar:

watery (filled with water)

washed (wet as from washing; sometimes used in combination)

undried (still wet or moist)

tacky ((of a glutinous liquid such as paint) not completely dried and slightly sticky to the touch)

clammy; dank (unpleasantly cool and humid)

sticky (moist as with undried perspiration and with clothing sticking to the body)

steaming; steamy (filled with steam or emitting moisture in the form of vapor or mist)

rainy; showery ((of weather) wet by periods of rain)

sloppy (wet or smeared with a spilled liquid or moist material)

rheumy (moist, damp, wet (especially of air))

reeking; watery (wet with secreted or exuded moisture such as sweat or tears)

muggy; steamy; sticky (hot or warm and humid)

misty (wet with mist)

humid (containing or characterized by a great deal of water vapor)

drippy; drizzly (wet with light rain)

sodden; soppy (wet through and through; thoroughly wet)

damp; dampish; moist (slightly wet)

boggy; marshy; miry; mucky; muddy; quaggy; sloppy; sloughy; soggy; squashy; swampy; waterlogged ((of soil) soft and watery)

besprent (sprinkled over)

bedewed; dewy (wet with dew)

Attribute:

wetness (the condition of containing or being covered by a liquid (especially water))

Antonym:

dry (free from liquid or moisture; lacking natural or normal moisture or depleted of water; or no longer wet)

Derivation:

wetness (the condition of containing or being covered by a liquid (especially water))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Containing moisture or volatile components

Context example:

wet paint

Antonym:

dry (lacking moisture or volatile components)

Derivation:

wet (wetness caused by water)

wetness (the condition of containing or being covered by a liquid (especially water))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Supporting or permitting the legal production and sale of alcoholic beverages

Context example:

a wet county

Antonym:

dry (opposed to or prohibiting the production and sale of alcoholic beverages)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Producing or secreting milk

Synonyms:

lactating; wet

Context example:

lactating cows

Similar:

fresh (having recently calved and therefore able to give milk)

Antonym:

dry (not producing milk)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Consisting of or trading in alcoholic liquor

Context example:

a wet canteen

Similar:

alcoholic (characteristic of or containing alcohol)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Very drunk

Synonyms:

besotted; blind drunk; blotto; cockeyed; crocked; fuddled; loaded; pie-eyed; pissed; pixilated; plastered; slopped; sloshed; smashed; soaked; soused; sozzled; squiffy; stiff; tight; wet

Similar:

drunk; gone; inebriated; intoxicated; ripped (stupefied or excited by a chemical substance (especially alcohol))

Domain usage:

argot; cant; jargon; lingo; patois; slang; vernacular (a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves))

• WET (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they wet    ... he / she / it wets   
Past simple: wet    / wetted   
Past participle: wet    / wetted   
-ing form: wetting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to become wet

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

Wet your face

Hypernyms (to "wet" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "wet"):

bedew (cover with drops of dew or as with dew)

douse; dowse; drench; soak; sop; souse (cover with liquid; pour liquid onto)

dampen; moisten; wash (make moist)

irrigate; water (supply with water, as with channels or ditches or streams)

besprinkle; sparge; sprinkle (scatter with liquid; wet lightly)

squirt (wet with a spurt of liquid)

douse; dowse (wet thoroughly)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

dry (remove the moisture from and make dry)

Derivation:

wet (wetness caused by water)

wetter (a workman who wets the work in a manufacturing process)

wetting (the act of making something wet)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make one's bed or clothes wet by urinating

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Context example:

This eight year old boy still wets his bed

Hypernyms (to "wet" is one way to...):

make; make water; micturate; pass water; pee; pee-pee; piddle; piss; puddle; relieve oneself; spend a penny; take a leak; urinate; wee; wee-wee (eliminate urine)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

wetter (someone suffering from enuresis; someone who urinates while asleep in bed)

 Context examples 

“You just jump up, like a sweet lad, and get me an apple, to wet my pipe like.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He dried his wet foot-gear by the fire.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The wet wood which I had placed near the heat dried and itself became inflamed.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

For decades after one of these storms, the warm air in Saturn's deep atmosphere is too wet, and too dense, to rise.

(Study Explains Saturn's Epic Tantrums, NASA)

“But where are you going, Eleanor? Why do you choose that cold, damp path to it? Miss Morland will get wet. Our best way is across the park.”

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

He changed legs again, and wetted his lips.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“And very wet it seems to have made you,” said Holmes laying his hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now place your feet on the stool, to keep them out of the wet.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I was wet and chilled to the marrow, till I felt more dead than alive.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

This cycle can keep you from sleeping or even make you wet the bed.

(Diabetes Insipidus, NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases)