wet adj.1
1. of a woman, sexually excited, ‘secreting lech-water’; sexually available.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | London Spy VII 174: Nor one whore that could have the impudence to ask above Six-pence Wet and Six-pence Dry, for an hour of her Cursed Company. | |
| Satirist (London) 9 Sept. 295/1: [T]he saying has become common, when speaking of what they consider a low girl, ‘Oh! the creature’s wet: she goes to the Piccadilly Saloon’. | |
| My Secret Life (1966) I 71: Was it not lovely, Charlotte, is not your thing wet? | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘All Night Long’ in Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 171: We drank one or two as other folks do, / The night was wet, but she got wetter. | |
| in Limerick (1953) 62: Her twat would get wet / And would wiggle and fret, / And her cunt-lips would curl and unfurl. | |
| Sexus (1969) 351: She was wet as a goose now. | |
| Garden of Sand (1981) 81: Don’t play with my pussy. I’m wet already. | |
| You Flash Bastard 128: ‘D’you want a punch in the fucking mouth?’ – he hadn’t in fact taken exception. ‘I’m going wet at the prospect, my darling man.’. | |
| Macho Sluts 47: You really are wet! | |
| Powder 400: There he was now, knowing that each deliberate slide of his hips was making the girls wet. | |
| Outlaws (ms.) 65: Just the thought of being overpowered makes her wet. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 133: Jacobs wanted to ask her is she was as wet as he was hard. | |
 | ‘Doing the Job’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] I still had [...] a smile that made women wet. |
2. with ref. to alcohol.
(a) drunk; sometimes all wet.
| ‘Celia to Damon’ in Poetical Wks (1866) 61: When my lost lover the tall ship ascends With music gay, and wet with jovial friends. | |
| ‘Drinkers Dictionary’ in Pennsylvania Gazette 6 Jan. in AS XII:2 92: They come to be well understood to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK. [...] He’s Wet. | |
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 192: ‘Wet, a little’ — somewhat drunky. | |
| ‘A Favourite Parody’ in Lummy Chaunter 75: Perhaps like me, she’s glad to take / Whatever she can get, / But if she drinks till she is dry, / She always will be wet. | |
| Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 109: That nights at Smalls’s, when you got wet in rather a more lively style than you’ve done to-day. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 11: Sergeant O’Leary, as wet a soul as ever drained a tap. | |
| Three Brass Balls 38: He had a basin of water brought and dashed his head into it, for the Dalrymple supper had been a ‘wet’ one. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Coburg Leader (Vic.) 22 June 1/7: J.P. (judge of pigs) was a bit wet when he read this paper last week. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 7 Feb. 1/1: A Barrack-street publican recently had a wet time at his houseboat. | |
| ‘On a Bender’ in Benno and Some of the Push 76: You can’t reckon he’s wet through ’n’ through till he’s a Hinglish Earl out t’ buy an ’an’ful iv gold-mines. | |
| letter 20 Dec. in Riggio Dreiser-Mencken Letters II (1986) 365: This will be a very wet Christmas. I am booked for three-under-the-table parties, all stag. | |
| ‘Sl. Expressions for Drunk’ in New Republic in AS XVI:1 (1941) 9 Mar. 70: [...] wet. | |
| True Drunkard’s Delight. | |
| Felony Tank (1962) 115: Get wet, junior. | |
| Springfield Union-News (MA) 9 Sept. C6/5–6: wet—Is to be very drunk. | |
| ‘The Wire’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 6 [TV script] Either dry yourself out or go up on those rooftops wet. | |
| (con. 1963) November Road 252: ‘You’re wet already, Joey? [...] After only one drink?’. |
(b) drunken; often as wet night.
| Vanity Fair I 146: As he knew he should have a wet night, it was agreed that he might gallop back again in time for church on Sunday morning. | |
| Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 298: Sir Harry and party had had a wet night of it, and were all more or less drunk. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 29 July 2/7: The proof lay with the informing policemen, many of whom regularly make a ‘wet’ Sunday night of it, by going round to the various pubs, and taking a good pull at any glasses they may find. | |
| Sportsman 13 Oct. 2/1: Notes on News [...] ‘A hair of the (spirituous) dog that bit you’ is [...] said to be a good cure for ‘hot coppers’ [...] the morning after a ‘wet’ night. | |
| ‘Sir Rupert’s Wife’ Ballads of Babylon 28: His mansion was Liberty Hall; / There was always a warm wet welcome for neighbours who chose to call. | |
| Sporting Times 19 May 1/4: It is needless to say it was a wet night. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 6 Sept. 1/1: There was fun galore at a recent Cannington picnic [where] the mob made it the wettest picnic on record. | |
| Third Round 633: The office looked like the morning after a wet night. |
(c) (US) permitting the sale of alcohol; thus a wet state.
| in Scribner’s Monthly I 63: Dry or wet, Mr. Dort? Indifferent, eh? [DA]. | |
| Dallas Dly Herald (TX) 28 Nov. 1/4: Atlanta Gone Wet. The antis carried every city precinct [...] and the antis are jubilant. Prohibitionists concede the victory. | |
| Congressional Record 12 Mar. 2172/1: Every spring election there is a contest as to whether the town is to be ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ [DA]. | |
| Sporting Times 1 Jan. 1/4: The workhouses where beer was barred — dry. / Almost everywhere else it was wet. | |
| Muskogee Cimiter (OK) 24 Mar. 4/2: The howl going up from the press [...] because of the move to deprive them of ‘wet’ advertising is [...] instructive. | |
| Plastic Age 251: Hugh assured Cynthia that it was going to be a ‘wet party’ and that Vinton had sold him a good supply of Scotch. | |
| Old-Time Saloon 19: A large slice of the population, even during the high tide of the wet era, shunned the booze joints and rode on the wagon. | |
| Life 18 Nov. 20/2: By that standard [...] freshmen have been wet since 1902, when the first nightshirt parade was held [DA]. | |
| Show Biz from Vaude to Video 140: Accordingly, they stuck the knife into customers up to the hilt in that last of the wet, go-to-hell years. | |
| Living Black 282: The director decides whether a reserve will have ‘wet’ canteens on it and, if so, how long they will be open each day. | |
| Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 154: I’m proud to say they voted wet last year so all my babtist [sic] buddies can start drinking in front of each other. |
(d) of a job of work, ‘encouraged’ by a present of a drink to the worker by the customer.
| Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 12: The [tailor’s] needle being wet went faster and Darby’s turn-out was soon complete. |
(e) (US Und.) of alcohol, diluted.
| White Slavery 109: All the mixed drinks are ‘wet,’ that is, they have been watered. |
(f) containing alcohol.
| Argus (Melbourne) 3 Mar. 2/5: The new mayor is a different type of gentleman [...] He keeps a wet cupboard. |
3. in fig. senses.
(a) (usu. upper-middle-/upper-class) weak, spineless; thus wetness n., weakness, ineffectuality, spinelessness.
| Plastic Age 193: It is not au fait to like poetry; a man who does is exceedingly wet, indeed; he is effeminate, a sissy. | |
| Phila. Inquirer 16 June n.p.: The word ‘wet’ still embraces anything that does not meet with approval. Applied to an undergraduate, it is a fighting word, unless accompanied by a smile. | |
| (con. 1937) Mad in Pursuit 157: Think I’m soft, or bloody wet, or something? | |
| Jennings Goes To School 18: You’re a bit wet, aren’t you? | |
| Right to an Answer (1978) 93: Don’t be so bloody wet. | |
| Skyvers Act II: You don’t do much wiv ’im except goin’ to the pictures [...] and angin’ about wet-like, nattering. | |
| East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 62: Pop eyed for a pathetic wet customer to bleed. | |
| Beano Comic Library No. 181 44: That was a wet idea, Wiggy! | |
| Indep. Rev. 13 Aug. 11: The really only decent woman is the motherless Anne – and when I say decent, I means wet. | |
| ‘Boner McPharlin’s Moll’ in Turning (2005) 257: Don’t be wet, I said. |
(b) incorrect, mistaken, no good; usu. as all wet
| Plastic Age 94: They attended a performance of Shaw’s ‘Candida’ given by the Dramatic Society and voted it a ‘wet’ show. [Ibid.] 192: Wet! What currency that bit of slang has — and what awful power. It took me a long time to find out what the word meant, but after long research I think that I know. A man is wet if he is n’t a ‘regular guy’; he is wet if he is n’t ‘smooth’; he is wet if he has intellectual interests and lets the mob discover them; and, strangely enough, he is wet by the same token if he is utterly stupid. He is wet if he does n’t show at least a tendency to dissipate, but he is n’t wet if he dissipates to excess. | |
| ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 337: wet — no good; of no importance; mistaken. | |
| Onliest Fisherman 29: All right, you wet joke on a good man’s strength! Look at you! Your muscles is all lies. |
4. (US Black / Und.) covered in blood (usu. from a gunshot or knife wound); thus get one’s hands wet, to commit a murder.
| ‘I’ll Wax Anybody’ 🎵 Your boys wanna jet, but their ass’ll get wet. | |
| ‘Hurt That Nigga’ 🎵 Get wet tip of my TEC rips ya neck. | |
| Winter of Frankie Machine (2007) 127: Tom is a lawyer who’s never got his hands wet. | |
| ‘Who You’re Around’ 🎵 Remember when it rains, niggas get wet. | |
| ‘Secret’ 🎵 I’m chingin’ and yingin’ / He’s dead on the scene (Wet, wet). |
Pertaining to alcohol
In compounds
a deal concluded over drinks.
| Speeches II (1812) 271: The recruit took the condition of a soldier, with a guinea to make it a wet bargain. | |
| Drinking Usages of UK 87: Agricultural bargains [...] are very general settled [...] over strong drink [and] the supposed necessity of ‘wet bargain’ is nearly universal. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Antiquary 44 101: A Dutch or wet bargain came to mean one cemented by the parties drinking together. | |
| Wedding Customs 59: After the giving of the ring or kiss wine was generally drunk by the bride and the groom, and this ceremony, known as a ‘wet bargain,’ made the contract even more binding. |
a state of stupidity induced by alcoholism; thus an alcoholic; in general use, a fool.
| Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 17 Aug. 8/8: Within a certain period the drinker has brought himself down to the level of chronic alcoholic poisoning, or what in the profession is designated as ‘wet brain.’. | |
| Sth Alabamian (Jackson, AL) 28 Apr. 6/2: ‘The man,’ he said, ‘who takes a social drink should know of a new danger that lies in store or him. It is wet brain’. | |
| Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Act II: Concentrate, but you can’t because your brain’s all soaked with liquor, is that the trouble? Wet brain! | |
| ‘Have Coolth’ Gentleman Junkie 132: We staggered home to my pad [...] like a pair of wet brains. | |
| ‘A Boy & his Dog’ Beast that Shouted Love (1976) 189: I heard myself talking to her, still standing there like some kind of wetbrain. | |
| You Bright and Risen Angels (1988) 240: I’ll be blowed if I know what you could possibly understand about amphibious warfare, you wetbrain. | |
| Golden Orange (1991) 367: You’re a big-time drunk. They’ll jist think you got wet-brain. | |
| Crooked Little Vein 166: We squelched our way through [...] some wetbrain’s idea of Paris. | |
| Shore Leave 39: [T]he stairs [...] led up to what was presumably a boarding house for wet-brains. | |
| May God Forgive 22: ‘Wet brain’ they called it. Years of drinking taking its toll. |
see wet Quaker
(US) alcohol.
| ‘Johnny Wise’ [comic strip] Then proceeds to buy him some ‘wet food.’. |
alcohol; also attrib.
| Pennsylvania Eve. Post 9 Mar. 80/2: To Be Let, A little above the Drawbridge, A Vault, [...] very fit and convenient for Liquors or Wet Goods [DA]. | |
| Sportsman (London) ‘Notes on News’ 8 Nov. 4/1: Everybody knows the story of Sheridan having been picked up in a state of what the Yankees call ‘suffering from wet groceries’. | |
| New Connecticut 122: The largest items in the bills for such occasions [i.e. weddings] being for what were called ‘wet goods’ [DA]. | |
| News-Herald (Hillsboro, OH) 13 May 1/1: They smoke moderately and consume but a limited amount of ‘wet goods’ . | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 29 Apr. 31/2: [Woman] ‘I am going into this dry goods store. Can you wait?’ [Man] ‘Oh yes. But don’t hurry — I’m going to wait in a wet goods store’. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 23 Mar. 7/1: With prohibition ahead [...] she is secretly laying in a supply of wet goods. | |
| Gangs of N.Y. 10: Green-groceries which sold more wet goods than vegetables. | |
| ‘The Three Wise Guys’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 398: Blondy is bringing wet goods into New York from Canada. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
a drunkard, a heavy drinker.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| True Drunkard’s Delight 235: Wet used adjectivally gives us wet-handed for drunk [...] a wet-hand being a toper and wet-nights his occasions. |
(US black) a simpleton, an innocent, a novice.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 45: Some cat’ll come down — a wethead. | |
| Rude Behavior 130: Gray Shannon, a wethead in a three-piece suit. |
a homeless hostel which permits one to bring and consume alcohol.
| Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 89: His dad runs this homeless hostel [...] it’s a ‘wethouse’, which means the homeless folk are allowed to get lashed. |
1. a drinker.
| Life in London (1869) 267: [note] A glass of spirits is termed, among the wet ones, adding ‘another nail to the coffin.’. | |
| Satirist (London) 24 Mar. 518/3: [He] gave an account of his conversion from evil doing; he avowed that he had once been ‘a wet un,’ but that now he only thirsted after righteousness. |
2. (US drugs, also wet daddy) a cigarette saturated with phencyclidine; thus wetted-up adj., intoxicated with phencyclidine.
| Central Sl. 57: wet one/wet daddy A sherman cigarette saturated with PCP. wetted-up To be loaded with PCP. |
3. (N.Z. prison) any sentence that has been given in connection with alcohol.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 202/1: wet one n. a sentence given for an alcohol-related offence, e.g. drink driving, being drunk and disorderly. |
a parson with a taste for liquor.
| , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Wet Parson. One who moistens his clay freely, in order to make it stick together. |
| Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1788]. | |
| Gaelic Pvbs 212: It was very well known by the presbytery, that our wet parson was a perfect judge of the real dew of the Grampians, and staple beverage of Caledonia. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| letter 289 Oct. in Irving Life & Letters (1870) 215: [He] is a man of great wealth and greater eccentricity; a kind of wet parson, if I may borrow that phrase from the Quakers ; as he is a complete bon vivant. |
1. one who pretends to be religious and abjure alcohol, but in fact drinks regularly in secret.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Wet-Quaker, a Drunkard of that Sect. | |
| Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 26: Would you buy any naked truth, or light in a dark-lanthorn? Look in the Wet-Quaker’s walk. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 142: Being a facetious Sort of Fellow, what we call a Wet Quaker, he would drink and keep company. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | London Hermit (1794) 61: He’s a wet Christian. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Albany Microscope (NY) 19 Jan. n.p.: Friend H—h, a wet Quaker, read an anti-slavery address [...] in return they treat him to a little of the ‘inward light‘. Our friend experienced religious excitement. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 94: Wet Quaker, a temperance man drinking on the sly. |
2. one who drinks weak or diluted spirits.
| Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 1 Sept. 3/6: The language of the London East-end pub [...] ‘Cat flaps’ and ‘Wet Quakers’ — Drinkers of diluted stuff. |
3. in fig. use, any hypocritical person.
| Twice Round the Clock 194: They [i.e. ‘sporting men’] are the wet Quakers of the turf. [...] I conjecture them to be trainers, country horse-dealers, licensed victuallers with a turn for sporting, gentlemen farmers [...]. |
gin.
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
a regular, and reasonably heavy drinker.
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. |
(US) a bar.
| More Ex-Tank Tales 44: We [...] were jogged to a truly rural wetworks further up the Boulevard. |
In phrases
1. (US) to have a drink.
| It’s Cold Out There (2005) 191: I got nowhere to flop and nothing to get wet with. |
2. see also general phrases below.
3. see also SE phrases below.
Pertaining to sex
In compounds
(US) the vagina.
| ‘The Code’ in Brooklyn Noir 183: My wet-box is saved for someone else . . . but you can either fuck my ass or come in my mouth. |
(Aus.) a contraceptive sheath, a condom.
| Lingo 126: In Lingo, condoms are [...] a wet check (presumably derived from the proprietary name ‘Wet Chex’), wet suit; raincoat. |
1. (Can./US) a woman or prostitute who performs serial sex acts with a succession of males (lit. her vagina).
| Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 14 Jan. n.p.: There cannot be any mode adopted for inventing a lock and key to protect him [...] from mounting a wet deck so often, particularly that of a frigate I consider slippery and dangerous. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases. | |
| Maledicta IX 149: The compilers ought to have looked farther afield and found: [...] privateer (part-time pro, the Navy also supplying contrasting terms such as buttered buns or wet deck). | |
| Twenty [graphic novel] ‘Get me really hard and I’ll fuck you senseless. But to be honest I prefer a wet deck.’ ‘A wet deck. What on earth do you mean?’ ‘He means he wants you full of spunk before he has you. He’ll wait until you’ve had two or three before him.’. |
2. ejaculation without penetration, e.g. after mutual male masturbation.
| San Diego Sailor 78: When I felt mine ready to blow, I had to break out of the clinch or it would have been wet decks again. |
(US) a prostitute.
| Lantern (New Orleans, LA) 20 Oct. 2: Boys, keep me away from the soiled doves or the wet hens. |
(Aus.) a contraceptive sheath, a condom.
| Lingo 126: In Lingo, condoms are [...] [a] wet suit; raincoat, and fantastic plastic. |
In phrases
1. (also get wet) of a man, to have sexual intercourse.
| From Here to Eternity (1998) 597: You may have a little trouble at first. Specially if you’re used to getting it wet every night. You’ll get over it though. | |
| When Shadows Fall 10: What was he to make of some spade saying that he had to get his ‘johnson wet’? | |
| ‘976-Bun B’ 🎵 I’m divin in that ass like a pool / But when I get wet BITCH, I won’t be drownin. | |
| ‘Chickenhawk’ at www.cultdeadcow.com 🌐 Did anyone else get it wet in your cunt? | |
| Royal Family 267: I got my dick wet inside her one two three times. | |
| ‘Time After Time’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 1 [TV script] They could put a big-ass sign in the front that says ‘Here's where Louie Carr first got his dick wet’. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 30: Just let me know when you wanna get it wet, your limp noodle. I’ll send a broad over. | |
| Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘I’m not interrupting you getting your pecker wet, am I?’. |
2. to be fellated.
| On the Yard (2002) 195: Get your dick wet, Cool Breeze. | |
| Straight Outta Compton 52: Wanna get blowed? [...] I’m talkin’about getting yo’ fucking dick wet. |
(US black) to have sexual intercourse; the idea being with someone else’s partner.
| [song title] I left It Wet For You. | |
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 leave it wet for someone Definition: to fuck a bitch of her good pussy Example: When you come home from work don’t worry about yo wife cause I left it wet for ya. |
General uses
In compounds
a period of high anxiety.
| A Drink Before the War 80: She looked at me and I could tell she was sizing me up. The wet ass hour, as it were, deciding if she could trust me. |
see wet n. (2)
a foolish, naïve person.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
1. (US) a weakling, an ineffectual person; a disappointment.
| Sketch book of a Cadet 142: ‘You — you kissed that wet smack just to — to—’ ‘Oh, no, not entirely. I rather liked kissing that “smack,” as you call him’. | |
| Cutie 11: He was a wet smack from the take off. | |
| Hollywood Girl 201: I told you that damned lovers of history gag was a wet smack. | |
| Awake and Sing! I i: No wet smack. | |
| Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 115: She considered you a wet smack and a total loss. | |
| Beat Generation 78: She turned her face so her wet smack Ex didn’t see the wink she gave Artie. | |
| Maledicta 1 (Summer) 17: If she is actually frigid, she’s a wet smack, an ice-cube with a hole in it. |
2. a drinker.
| ‘Volstead English’ in AS VII:2 86: Terms applying to one who drinks intoxicating liquors: Wet smack. |
murder; assassination, esp. as carried out by secret services; also attrib.
| Close Pursuit (1988) 204: He’s criminally liable for the Spiegel assault, even if Willoughby did the wet work. | |
| Six Out Seven (1994) 108: Maybe they’d done all the wet work inside? | |
| Kill Your Darlings 196: A wet job. | |
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 14: Chuck was Pete’s man. Wet arts/CIA. | |
| Plainclothes Naked (2002) 293: Assuming George doesn’t ask daddy to send some old hand from the CIA to make wet work out of her. | |
| Snitch Jacket 34: Your basic wetworks-type covert shit [...] Assassinations of foreign dignitaries. | |
| Raiders 262: It was still standard to get yourself a weapon and a wedge for your door asap, just in case anyone tried to get in [...] for a bit of wet work. | |
| Viva La Madness 187: If they wanna do a wet job on ya, they’ve only gotta plot up. | |
| Viva La Madness 346: If Miguel wanted me dead he’d send one of his Americans. They’d know how to do a wet one. | |
| Joe Country [ebook] ‘Former? They use formers for wet work’. | |
| Razorblade Tears 111: ‘[Y]ou can prove you done some wet work for the club’. |
In phrases
1. (orig. US) silly, foolish.
| Two and Three 3 Feb. [synd. col.] If he is trying to square himself by squawking that Dempsey belgiumed him, he is all wet. | |
| Re-ly-on Bottler 3-6 307/1: ‘You’re all wet,’ says the youth of today when he wishes to convey the idea that in his mind, your opinion or action or attitude [...] is wrong. | |
| Manhattan Transfer 129: An he said, Margie I’ve got a crush on you so bad, and she said, Come in outa the rain, you’re all wet. | |
| Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 175: You’re all wet. Wake up, kid, you’re having a nightmare. | |
| Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘You’re all wet.’ ‘All right, I’m all wet’. | |
| ‘A Man in the Way’ in Pat Hobby Stories (1967) 36: All I need is [...] to work with somebody who isn’t all wet. | |
| ‘The Flaw in the System’ in Fireworks (1988) 140: We were all wet [...] all I can say is we were asking for it. |
2. (orig. US black) useless, worthless, wrong.
| ‘Bird in the Hand’ in Goulart (1967) 291: You’re all wet, Beaver. | |
| Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 174: No, it was all wet, and no good thinking about. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| (con. 1940s–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad 3: All wet Disappointing, worthless. |
3. (US Black) infatuated (with).
| Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 21 Nov. 20/1: Edith Young and Arleen Crawford, please believe it, are all wet about Danny Miller. |
to have a drink.
| Hand-made Fables 10: It is possible for a Cluster of our Best People to survive from 5 p.m. to Bedtime without getting the Nose wet. |
1. to murder, to kill.
| Clockers 66: Strike had been so overwhelmed by his decision to get wet. | |
| ‘Wanksta’ 🎵 Be easy, start some bullshit / You get your whole crew wet. |
2. to be wounded, to be stabbed.
| Scholar 65: You don’ know how many brers got wet wiv dat knife, or what germs they had. |
3. see also alcohol phrs. above.
4. see also SE phrs. below.
(US) to copulate with a female immediately after she has copulated with an¬other male.
| Oliver Droopydrawers Presents Boobs in ‘Hot Panties’ in Reynolds Famous Sex Comics 144: ‘[H]how would you like to play a wet deck after a snatch had been reamed out by that mighty joy-prong?’ . |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
see separate entries.
see separate entry.
In phrases
(UK black) a coward, a sentimentalist.
| Urban Dict. 🌐 A wet boy (sometimes referred to as a pussy wet boy) is someone who is consecutively cowardly towards everything and everyone. He is afraid of letting loose and fears having a good time (especially with the ladies). |
see wet week n. (2) .
see separate entry.
(US) a form of cocktail.
| Unknown City 409: This morning I have had a wet eye, a stone fence, a Tom and Jewy, a flip and a Sally come quick. |
a naïve, inexperienced, innocent person; also as adj.
| Choirboys (1976) 111: Any wetfoot hotdogs who like to put a shoe in the carburetor better stand by. | |
| Signs of Crime 207: Wet foot Naive and innocent person. |
a self-pitying person.
| Coll. Letters (1962) II 726: Being too much of a wet-leg, as they say in England, nakedly to enter into the battle. | |
| ‘Willy wet-legs’ Pansies 119: I can’t stand Willy wet-leg, can’t stand him at any price. | |
| (ref. to 1930s) Times Literary Supplement 3 July 745/1: We know how much Auden hated wet-legs, how constantly he repeated his many litanies of his own good fortune . |
(UK black/gang) an assassin, a killer.
| ‘With Intent’ 🎵 Wet, wet, wet man down for the crew. |
(US und.) money in the form of saleable (stolen and/or illicit) alcohol.
| Tough Guy [ebook] Fifty thousand bucks in wet money, ninety proof Canadian, was coming down in trucks from outside of Albany, fifty thousand in each and every truck. Booze for the Christmas trade. |
(US) innocent, naïve.
| Scene (1996) 106: It’s the sort of thing no wet-nosed fullback on last year’s varsity can tell you a damn thing about. | |
| , | | DAS 572/2: wet-nose adj. Young and inexperienced [...] In use before 1860; archaic. |
| Chosen Few (1966) 182: It’d be a damn shame t’come throught th’ war and get wasted by a wet-nosed para-somethin’ or other in boot camp. |
an emotional, sentimental person.
| Loving (1978) 73: ‘Raunce is a bit of a wet rag isn’t he?’ [...] ‘Wet blanket you mean.’. | |
| Parm Me 83: If I suffer, then I’m too broken up here [...] to do anything else. I’m just like a wet rag. |
a stupid person.
| Memoirs of a ‘Sky Pilot’ 254: Other [words] were new to me, such as [...] ‘wet sack’ for a dunce. |
a failure, a second-rate individual.
| Judge (NY) 91 July-Dec. 31: Wet Smack - a dead one; a flat tire. |
see separate entries.
tears.
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
see wet week n.
(Aus./NZ) orig. angling use, a waste of time; the expenditure of fruitless effort.
| Critic (Adelaide) 13 June 8/1: Punters will not forget the A.R.C. Birthday Meeting in a hurry, especially the two closing days. It was a case of ‘wet feet and no fish’. | |
| Tumut Advocat (NSW) 10 Aug. 4/1: People who go on our river for rowing excursions over the rapids, and meet with misfortune, should not drag a line and spinnow after their boat. It’s a bad omen, which invariably means ‘wet pants and no fish.’. | |
| Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 14: wet arse and no fish: Descriptive of a fruitless errand. | |
| in McCulloch (ed.) Dance of the Nomad (2010) 162: [F]ishing for conceits is a greater pleasure to me than the sort carried on on riverbanks and shores. Of course both kinds of fishing sometimes end with ‘a wet arse and no fish’, as the enthusiasts of the sport put it . | |
| Warragamba Dam [ebook] After telling my story Sid said, ‘Well mate, you got a wet arse and no fish, but don’t worry too much about it’. | |
| nz.reg.wellington.general 🌐 I get the distinct feeling that the ice is getting a little thin here ... and I really DON’T want a wet arse and no fish. |
(N.Z.) to gain an advantage over someone.
| Transport Workers’ Song Bk 29: He skites about in-fighting. Stick to him, Mick; you’ve got him wet [DNZE]. | |
| When Wind Blows 40: Now we’ve got ’em wet [in a tennis game]. |
1. (Aus.) to lose one’s temper, to become angry.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. Red Page, n.p.: To get narked is to lose your temper; also expressed by getting dead wet. | |
| ‘The Play’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 16 July 47/1: Quite natchril, Romeo gits wet as ’ell. / ‘It’s me or you!’ ’e ’owls, an’ wiv a yell, / Plunks Tyball through the gizzard wiv ’is sword. | |
| Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 42: Romeo gits wet as ’ell. | |
| Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 WET, TO GET — Become annoyed. | |
| Aus. Lang. 121: A man in a temper is said [...] to get off his bike; to get wet. | |
| Jimmy Brockett 53: They all laughed then. I got as wet as a beetle at first, and then I cooled down. | |
| I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 233/1: get wet – to get angry. |
2. (Aus./N.Z.) to gain the upper hand over, to have at one’s mercy.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Aug. 36/2: ‘You’ve got ’em all wet, Sis,’ he said, later. ‘My oath, you’re a bit of all-right, you are! I like you.’ / ‘Oh, dicken ter you!’ answered Phæbe, but not without a hint of coyness. / ‘Straight, s’help me!’ said the betrayer. ‘Look here, I’ll deal it out to anyone that lays a finger on you.’. |
3. see also alcohol phrs. above.
4. see also general phrs. above.