WETTING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wetting mean? 

• WETTING (noun)
  The noun WETTING has 2 senses:

1. the act of making something wet

2. a euphemism for urination

  Familiarity information: WETTING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WETTING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of making something wet

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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

change of state (the act of changing something into something different in essential characteristics)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "wetting"):

dousing; ducking; immersion; submersion (the act of wetting something by submerging it)

drenching; soaking; souse; sousing (the act of making something completely wet)

dampening; moistening (the act of making something slightly wet)

splash; splashing (the act of scattering water about haphazardly)

watering (wetting with water)

Derivation:

wet (cause to become wet)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A euphemism for urination

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

leak; making water; passing water; wetting

Context example:

he had to take a leak

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

micturition; urination (the discharge of urine)

Domain usage:

euphemism (an inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh)

 Context examples 

I lay still a while: the night-wind swept over the hill and over me, and died moaning in the distance; the rain fell fast, wetting me afresh to the skin.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A smother of spray dashed up, wetting his face.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This made Dorothy so very angry that she picked up the bucket of water that stood near and dashed it over the Witch, wetting her from head to foot.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Until then, bed-wetting alarms, bladder training and medicines might help.

(Bedwetting, NIH)

With some difficulty, and at the expense of a wetting to the waist, I climbed aboard.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

In his excitement he fell in, wetting himself to the waist.

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

I drew it out, and at his desire, as well as I could, expressed to him the use of it; and charging it only with powder, which, by the closeness of my pouch, happened to escape wetting in the sea (an inconvenience against which all prudent mariners take special care to provide,) I first cautioned the emperor not to be afraid, and then I let it off in the air.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Mr. Peggotty's face, which had varied in its expression with the various stages of his narrative, now resumed all its former triumphant delight, as he laid a hand upon my knee and a hand upon Steerforth's (previously wetting them both, for the greater emphasis of the action), and divided the following speech between us:

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The use of a series of integrated steps whereby a dry powder is conditioned by wetting or is melted to form a plasticized mass that with the aid of low shear forces, yields particles possessing characteristic dimensions and density.

(Low Shear Granulation, NCI Thesaurus)

The use of a series of integrated steps whereby a dry powder is conditioned by wetting, or is melted, to form a plasticized mass that with the aid of high shear forces yields relatively dense particles.

(High Shear Granulation, NCI Thesaurus)