WHET (whetted, whetting)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: whetted    , whetting   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does whet mean? 

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

1. make keen or more acute

2. sharpen by rubbing, as on a whetstone

  Familiarity information: WHET used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WHET (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they whet    ... he / she / it whets   
Past simple: whetted   
Past participle: whetted   
-ing form: whetting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make keen or more acute

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

quicken; whet

Context example:

whet my appetite

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

excite; stimulate; stir (stir feelings in)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Sharpen by rubbing, as on a whetstone

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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

sharpen (make sharp or sharper)

Sentence frames:

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

 Context examples 

He went on whetting his knife.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His glimpse that he have had, whet his appetite only and enkeen his desire.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

All this, though it whetted my curiosity, told me little that was definite.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The many books he read but served to whet his unrest.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The little chicks had no more than whetted his appetite.

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

Scientists recently restored Voyager's footage of Triton and used it to construct the best global color map of that strange moon yet — further whetting appetites for a Pluto close-up.

(NASA Pluto-Bound Spacecraft Crosses Neptune's Orbit, NASA)

I knew the steely ire I had whetted.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

When the boar perceived the tailor, it ran on him with foaming mouth and whetted tusks, and was about to throw him to the ground, but the hero fled and sprang into a chapel which was near and up to the window at once, and in one bound out again.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

When Amy had whetted her tongue and freed her mind she usually got the best of it, for she seldom failed to have common sense on her side, while Jo carried her love of liberty and hate of conventionalities to such an unlimited extent that she naturally found herself worsted in an argument.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Black Simon of Norwich crouched amid the rocks, crooning an Eastland ballad to himself, while he whetted his sword upon a flat stone which lay across his knees; while beside him sat Alleyne Edricson, and Norbury, the silent squire of Sir Oliver, holding out their chilled hands towards the crackling faggots.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)