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:
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
Earlier, Abdul Samad smashed an unbeaten 30 off 15 balls as Pakistan beat Bangladesh with nine balls to spare in a semi-final reduced to 13 overs by a wet outfield.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
The basic idea is similar to running a wet finger around the rim of a wine glass.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026
Natural Resources Wales said the habitat allowed wet sedges to grow - which is the only food source for the Bog Grass Moth's larvae.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
I’m rewarded with a slobbery wet kiss before I head into the school and the life I chose for me.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
It is forecast to be warmer and wetter than average with the chance of stormy weather later in the season - partly due to the developing very strong El Niño in the Pacific.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
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
West Kalimantan's wetter season usually starts around October or November.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
She said the summer's heatwaves had been "tough", but they were hoping for a cooler, wetter autumn, with the reserve braced for flood events and "saline surges" with seasonal tides.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
Their clothes, as they got wetter, became heavier, so it was a strange, slow game.
From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder
Despite a mostly dry weekend for many, last week was the wettest week in England since early February, according to the Environment Agency.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 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
The winter of 1982-83 was California’s wettest in 131 years of record-keeping, according to Alex Tardy, a former meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in San Diego.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Aultbea in the Scottish Highlands has recorded 389.6mm of rain so far this summer - more than one and a half times the seasonal norm, and only 10.2mm short of its wettest summer on record.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
“Why else would we close up our shop and take a boat and climb this abominable hill, all on the coldest, wettest day ever known since creation?”
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
At night, she now wets a hand towel and lays it across the end of her bed.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
A sniff of a rotting old chair frightens Indy so much, he wets the rug.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2025
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
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
Max finds a cloth, wets it in the water bucket, and starts cleaning Helena up while I hold her.
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
Several people wetted shirts in the river, then put them back on.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2025
The weather system that wetted pavement across the Seattle area on Tuesday has since pushed off and away, according to the National Weather Service.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 13, 2023
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
Also, as wetted peripheries of the lakes and streams contract and expand in response to climate variation, opportunities for exchange may increase.
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2012
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
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
Children may have heavier nappies or they may start wetting the bed because they're peeing more.
From BBC ● Jan. 20, 2026
I took the baby from her arms, and Opal slumped to the ground, wetting the wood planks with her tears.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
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.
