moisten
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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moistens,
present (3rd person singular)
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moistened,
past participle, past
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moistening
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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moistenernoun
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overmoistenverb
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remoistenverb
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supermoistenverb (used with object)
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unmoistenverb (used with object)
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premoistenedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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moistensimple
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moistenssimple
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have moistenedperfect
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has moistenedperfect
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am moisteningprogressive
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are moisteningprogressive
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is moisteningprogressive
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have been moisteningperfect progressive
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has been moisteningperfect progressive
Past
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moistenedsimple
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had moistenedperfect
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was moisteningprogressive
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were moisteningprogressive
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had been moisteningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of moisten
Explanation
To moisten is to make something slightly damp or just barely wet. It used to be necessary to moisten a postage stamp with your tongue before sticking it on an envelope, but today stamps stick without being licked. A misty rain will moisten your hair, and running uphill moistens your forehead with sweat. Your houseplant that prefers a small amount of water will be happiest if you barely moisten the soil. While rain overnight will leave your front lawn soaking wet, the morning dew will simply moisten each blade of grass. Moisten comes from moist, from the Old French moiste, "damp." The Latin root means something closer to "moldy or slimy."
Vocabulary lists containing moisten
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:
This and other recent rainfall have done much to moisten the landscape and make it harder for blazes to start.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2025
Then, they used energy dissipation models to compare the seals' ability to warm and moisten air during inhalation and to reduce heat and moisture loss during exhalation.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 14, 2023
Spread the spores evenly over the substrate and gently moisten it once, then mist or spray it with water twice daily, keeping it consistently moist but not soggy.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 5, 2023
To serve: Toss the cooked, room-temperature vermicelli with just enough Nuoc Cham to moisten the noodles.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 18, 2023
Holding the beaker in Lyra’s mouth, she tilted it to let a drop moisten the girl’s lips.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
You'll be in awe of the soft, warm pockets of spiced, tender apple, as well as how much the apple moistens the cake.
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2022
The teeth and jaw mechanically chew the food, and saliva from the salivary glands moistens the food and initiates mechanical and chemical digestion.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
Saliva contains mucus that moistens food and buffers the pH of the food.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
“That moistens your mouth to get it ready to spit,” he said.
From Washington Post
This eccentricity that I name Is, that whenever the bird would sing It darts its black head under its wing, And moistens its beak in—darling thing!—
From The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems by Victor, Frances Fuller
The mark is made with the moistened ashes of palms that were burned after the previous year’s Palm Sunday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
Months earlier, in March, farmworkers had used a machine to drop each little plant, grown in a greenhouse, into the moistened soil.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 30, 2025
In the relatively new carbon dioxide method, developed in the early 1970s, producers use high-pressure CO₂ to extract caffeine from moistened coffee beans.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2024
Mix, scraping the bowl as needed, just until the dough is evenly moistened, 1 to 2 minutes.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 15, 2023
More than once her eyes moistened, reflecting the tears of the family.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
The teacher bristled, with anger moistening her eyes: “Just think of where you would prefer to live.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
A wet March has provided a welcome partial relief to farmers by moistening soil ahead of planting but underground water levels remain dangerously low, especially around the Mediterranean.
From BBC ● May 5, 2023
On his last day of school on Friday, Mr. Esquivel thanked each of his teachers, his eyes moistening as they described him as a gift to the school community.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2022
Under normal conditions, that melting should continue through the spring and well into summer, filling the state’s man-made reservoirs and moistening soils and plants.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 1, 2022
So every day I filled an old coffee can two or three times and watered around the roots of the bush, moistening the earth until it became spongy.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
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.
