wet
Americanadjective
-
wetter,
comparative
-
wettest
superlative
-
moistened, covered, or soaked with water or some other liquid.
wet hands.
- Antonyms:
- dry
-
in a liquid form or state.
wet paint.
-
characterized by the presence or use of water or other liquid.
-
moistened or dampened with rain; rainy.
Wet streets make driving hazardous.
- Synonyms:
- misty
-
allowing or favoring the sale of alcoholic beverages.
a wet town.
-
characterized by frequent rain, mist, etc..
the wet season.
-
laden with a comparatively high percent of moisture or vapor, especially water vapor.
There was a wet breeze from the west.
- Synonyms:
- humid
-
Informal.
-
marked by drinking.
a wet night.
-
using water or done under or in water, as certain chemical, mining, and manufacturing processes.
noun
-
something that is or makes wet, as water or other liquid; moisture.
The wet from the earth had made the basement unlivable.
- Synonyms:
- humidity
-
damp weather; rain.
Stay out of the wet as much as possible.
- Synonyms:
- drizzle
-
a person in favor of allowing the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.
-
Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. wetback.
verb (used with object)
-
wets,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wet,
past participle, past
-
wetted,
past participle, past
-
wetting
present participle
-
to make (something) wet, as by moistening or soaking (sometimes followed by through ordown ).
Wet your hands before soaping them.
-
to urinate on or in.
The dog had wet the carpet.
verb (used without object)
-
wets,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wet,
past participle, past
-
wetted,
past participle, past
-
wetting
present participle
-
to become wet (sometimes followed by through ordown ).
Dampness may cause plastered walls to wet. My jacket has wet through.
-
(of animals and children) to urinate.
idioms
adjective
-
moistened, covered, saturated, etc, with water or some other liquid
-
not yet dry or solid
wet varnish
-
rainy, foggy, misty, or humid
wet weather
-
employing a liquid, usually water
a wet method of chemical analysis
-
characterized by or permitting the free sale of alcoholic beverages
a wet state
-
informal feeble or foolish
-
informal immature or inexperienced; naive
noun
-
wetness or moisture
-
damp or rainy weather
-
informal a Conservative politician who is considered not to be a hard-liner Compare dry
-
informal a feeble or foolish person
-
a person who advocates free sale of alcoholic beverages
-
(in northern and central Australia) the rainy season
verb
-
to make or become wet
-
to urinate on (something)
-
dialect (tr) to prepare (tea) by boiling or infusing
-
informal to take an alcoholic drink
Synonym Usage
Wet, drench, saturate, soak imply moistening something. To wet is to moisten in any manner with water or other liquid: to wet or dampen a cloth. Drench suggests wetting completely as by a downpour: A heavy rain drenched the fields. Saturate implies wetting to the limit of absorption: to saturate a sponge. To soak is to keep in a liquid for a time: to soak beans before baking.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
wetnessnoun
-
wettabilitynoun
-
wetternoun
-
rewetverb
-
nonwettedadjective
-
unwetadjective
-
unwettedadjective
-
wettableadjective
-
wettishadjective
-
wetlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wetsimple
-
wetssimple
-
have wetperfect
-
have wettedperfect
-
has wetperfect
-
has wettedperfect
-
am wettingprogressive
-
are wettingprogressive
-
is wettingprogressive
-
have been wettingperfect progressive
-
has been wettingperfect progressive
Past
-
wetsimple
-
wettedsimple
-
had wetperfect
-
had wettedperfect
-
was wettingprogressive
-
were wettingprogressive
-
had been wettingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wet
First recorded before 900; Middle English wett, past participle of weten, Old English wǣtan “to wet”; replacing Middle English weet, Old English wǣt, cognate with Old Frisian wēt, Old Norse vātr; akin to water
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“The most likely outcome this winter is that it’s very wet and that there are some episodes of significant flood risk,” Swain said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
And the first ad for it returns to familiar tropes of auto advertising, with a handsome driver, wet pavement and the cars on the road.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
On a generic level, there is no fundamental objection in F1 to racing in the wet - most of the drivers enjoy it.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
Wednesday will start cloudy and wet as a frontal system slowly drifts eastwards.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
I felt my arms and sides and waist dripping wet.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
Researchers are still working to better understand what contributed to the Bogong bounce-back, but believe a spate of wetter weather has helped.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
The forecast further ahead and into October is more uncertain but signs are it could start to feel more like autumn with wetter and windier weather becoming more dominant.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
West Kalimantan's wetter season usually starts around October or November.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
Late winter and early spring had actually been wetter than normal across the U.S.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
Harry was still numb with cold, still wetter than he’d ever been in his life, but he could see.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
In 2023, one of the wettest years in decades, the San Joaquin swelled to four miles wide at the site.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026
It comes as last week was was the wettest for England since early February, according to the Environment Agency.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Rain is forecast to start Saturday night across Southern California, but Sunday is expected to be the wettest day of the weekend with widespread but light rainfall measuring less than a quarter inch.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
Next week there is going to be more rain in the forecast, and again the north-west will probably end up being the wettest area.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Ten years ago, during one of the wettest winters on record, a large portion of the canyon road was washed away by the flooding of the San Francisquito Creek.
From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith
The green intermediates and blue full wets are also on hand if needed.
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2024
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 30, 2023
Roblox or a Baby Alive that wets its diaper.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2023
Hauser has found that people will give their lawns a quick watering in the morning and evening, but that can be a wasted effort that wets the soil’s surface and doesn’t get to the roots.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 20, 2021
"Turn left at the next chance," he said, "and follow your nose 'til you wets your toes."
From "The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary L. Blackwood
According to the City of Seattle, both unwanted fireplace ash and BBQ coals should be cooled, wetted, bagged and disposed of in the trash.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 22, 2024
Some leaned down, put their hands in the water and wetted their necks and hair.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2023
Dr. Jay has studied the body’s responses to sitting near an electric fan, wearing wetted clothing and sponging down with water.
From New York Times ● Jun. 13, 2022
It’s great spectator sport, and if you’re willing to be wetted with spray for long enough, you can see a man haul in a striped bass that measures from his shoulder to his ankle.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 3, 2020
She reached out, through the miles and the storm that wetted and shook her window; she reached out with her heart to her friend, wandering wherever he was.
From "The Honest Truth" by Dan Gemeinhart
He said heavy rain could overwhelm drainage systems and penetrate walls, causing damp and erosion, while repeated cycles of wetting, drying, freezing and thawing could harm stonework.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
Similar patterns appear on Sputnik Planitia, leading researchers to propose that subsurface liquid, specifically nitrogen, may be rising upward and wetting Pluto's frozen nitrogen surface.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026
If infected rodents are confirmed on board, public-health officials might require a thorough decontamination—a process that, according to the CDC, involves wetting all surfaces with disinfectants before cleaning to avoid sending virus particles airborne.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
But at Dilley, she regressed behaviorally, wetting herself after years without accidents and begging to breastfeed again despite being 6 years old.
From Slate ● Feb. 3, 2026
No liquid water was present except for very thin films wetting individual sand grains.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
