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:
“I ended up taking Baby Bash’s kids around during sound check and we rode Shipwreck Rapids three times in a row and were soaking wet, having a blast.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
They met at a café in Waikiki where Leong, still wet from surfing, persuaded Akemoto to stay in Hawaii.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Drivers are being warned that the return to wet weather could lead to slippery conditions as well as the risk of flooded roads.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Unlike natural DNA -- long, entangled strands that behave like wet spaghetti when handled -- short and rigid pieces of synthetic DNA can be arranged with much greater precision at extremely small scales.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
Running a hand through her wet hair creates a grim mental picture: emerging from the shelter to find reporters in the neighborhood, trying to interview her while she looks like a bedraggled cat.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
The upshot is hotter and drier conditions in some places, cooler and wetter in others.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
When soil is very dry, air temperature can rise more rapidly that it does when soil is wetter.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
The NFU said abstraction licences should be made more flexible to enable more water to be taken during these wetter winter months ahead of any dry summer spells.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Similarly, while La Niña brings drier and hotter weather in the south, it can create wetter and colder conditions in the northern U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
They were still walking downhill, and the ground was becoming wetter underfoot.
From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda
Next week, the forecast looks more unsettled, with more of a chance of rain, though it is likely to be northwestern parts of the UK which are the wettest.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
That came shortly after one of the UK's wettest winters on record in 2023-24, which triggered widespread flooding.
From BBC ● May 19, 2026
At the moment it looks like the wettest of the conditions will be across northern and western parts of the UK with drier conditions further south and east.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
In the Highlands and Western Isles, the wettest parts of Scotland, more than a month and a half's worth of rain has fallen.
From BBC ● May 1, 2026
New Guinea is one of the wettest areas on Earth, Australia one of the driest.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
And somehow, a man who openly parties so hard that he unabashedly wets the bed very much is.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2023
Highs will bounce around in the 50s over the next few days as a slug of widespread rainfall wets pavement across the Seattle area.
From Seattle Times ● May 5, 2023
And as the rain came down in the closing laps, initially only lightly, both were in a quandary - stay out on slick dry-weather tyres, or come in for treaded wets?
From BBC ● Nov. 30, 2021
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
She wets my hair, working up a lather and then rinsing it with cups of warm water.
From "Lucky Broken Girl" by Ruth Behar
Some leaned down, put their hands in the water and wetted their necks and hair.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2023
“If your germination mix isn’t fully wetted at the start,” Schuyler said, “subsequent waterings won’t fully wet it, and there will be dead spots the water never got to.”
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 18, 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
Yet, just as they would for a big game involving the Giants or Jets, the fans remained, their enthusiasm only whetted, not wetted down.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 8, 2018
She wetted her palm and smoothed the hair above my ear, then pushed the pin in so that it nicked sharply against my scalp.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
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
Children may have heavier nappies or they may start wetting the bed because they're peeing more.
From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2026
You never want to be their target, but watching their vicious crowd work from a safe distance mainly places you in danger of wetting yourself with a spit-take.
From Salon ● Jan. 15, 2026
How old were you when you stopped wetting your bed?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 16, 2025
Litres of water used up in the wetting of stamps.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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.
