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wet

n.
A2 Elementary Oxford US //ˈwɛt// UK //wˈɛt// wet Archaic General-service Humorous Informal Slang Vulgar

n. covered or soaked with water or another liquid. If something is wet, it is not dry.

n. covered or saturated with water or another liquid. A gradable adjective, often intensified with adverbs like 'soaking' or 'dripping'.


SIMPLE

My clothes are wet from the rain.

CONTEXTUAL

Be careful, the floor is still wet because I just finished mopping it.

COMPLEX

The manuscript was discovered in a damp cellar, its pages wet and fragile after decades of neglect.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Origin

From Middle English wet (“wet, moistened”), wett, wette, past participle of Middle English weten (“to wet”), from Old English wǣtan (“to wet, moisten, water”), from Proto-West Germanic wātijan, from Proto-Germanic wētijaną (“to wet, make wet”), from Proto-Indo-European *wed- (“water, wet”) (also the source of water). Cognate with Scots weit, wete (“to wet”), Saterland Frisian wäitje (“to wet; drench”), Icelandic væta (“to wet”). Compare also Middle English weet (“wet”), from Old English wǣt (“wet, moist, rainy”), from Proto-West Germanic wāt, from Proto-Germanic wētaz (“wet, moist”), related to Scots weit, weet, wat (“wet”), North Frisian wiat, weet, wäit (“wet”), Saterland Frisian wäit (“wet”), West Frisian wiet (“wet”), Middle Dutch wet (“wet, damp, watery”), Swedish and Norwegian våt (“wet”), Danish våd (“wet”), Faroese vátur (“wet”), Icelandic votur (“wet”).

Usage

The comparative and superlative forms are 'wetter' and 'wettest', doubling the final consonant.

Pitfall

weter / wetestwetter / wettestOne-syllable adjectives ending in a single vowel + consonant double the final consonant for the comparative and superlative forms.

Idioms17 entries

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