Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (also whet) a (measure of) alcohol, often as have/take a w(h)et, to have a drink; thus wet stuff, alcohol.

1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia II ii: Let’s whet; bring some wine. Come on; I love a whet.
1697		Cibber Woman’s Wit I i: Let’s you and I take a Whet of racy Canary.
a.1704		T. Brown A Comical View of London and Westminster in Works (1760) I 151: Barristers [...] take a whet at the Dog, or a slice of roast beef at Heaven.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy V 125: At noon he gets up for a wet and to Dine.
1723		C. Walker Authentick Memoirs of Sally Salisbury 48: They had guzzled down Three or Four Bottles by way of Whet.
1733		Newcastle Courant 1 Dec. 1/2: This fits him for t’other Pipe, and that for a Whet at the Rose.
1764		K. O’Hara Midas I iii: Our Gammer, sure, has tipt her whet of stingo!
1776		G. Colman Spleen II i: He [...] takes a whet at mother Redcap’s.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Whet, a morning’s draught, commonly white wine, supposed to whet or sharpen the appetite.
1799		Sporting Mag. Feb. XIII 271/1: Justice Guzzle called for a dram by way of whet.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1818		‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome III 167: Tongue and fowls, and lots of Wet.
1818		W. Perry London Guide 226: He had taken a whet (of gin) in Spitalfields market.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 385: The Racket-Players have just called in for a whet.
1825		Age (London) 3 July 61/1: [W]hat with a little wet outside, and then stopping now and then on the road to take a little inside.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 219: Numerous dragsmen taking their morning whets.
1833		‘Her Muns with a Grin’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 50: All moonshine to stash — is the young lightning’s flash / [...] / that is got a by a smash, / At the vendor of vet.
1841		‘Going Out A-Shooting’ Dublin Comic Songster 232: We had cigars, and just a wet, / Before we went a-shooting.
1846		Durivage & Burnham Stray Subjects (1848) 107: I gin her cords of peanuts, / And a apple and a ‘wet.’.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Feb. 1/4: Let’s get a vet.
1850		Fast Man 8:1 n.p.: [H]e’d see them all blowed if he’d go on without a wet of gatter.
1855		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Mar. 26/2: [H]e hath prepared for his dinner with a decent whet of sherry.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 51/2: There was quite a ‘push’ inside, made up mostly of those who had left the Globe, and who yet lingered for another ‘wet.’.
1877		Launceston Wkly News 1 Sept. 3/2: ‘Ain’t had no wet for four days!’.
1879		H. Hartigan Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 139: But his great ambition and delight was to gather a few shillings together [...] that he might have a good wet.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 10 Jan. 14/1: She [...] said she didn’t mind if she did have a wet of gin.
1885		B. Patterson Life in the Ranks 71: This shrine of Bacchus is certainly well patronised by our ‘bright boys,’ who are hereby enabled to indulge in ‘wets’ to their hearts’ content.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 30 Nov. 6/2: ‘I say, mister, are you going to have a wet?’.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 7 Jan. 3/3: Friendly ‘Argus’ reporters [...] were always sure of a ‘wet’.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) II 197: After a lot of talk and a certain amount of ‘wet,’ he and I made three matches.
1899		E.W. Rogers [perf. Vesta Tilley] The Daily Male 🎵 He knows the taste of all kinds of wet / Calls ev’ry barmaid he meets ‘My pet’ .
1900		Regiment 27 Jan. 288/1: [S]hould he happen to be induced by a chum to ‘have a wet,’ he is said to have ‘broke out,’ or ‘gone off the tack,’ or ‘broken the teapot’.
1903		Nebraska State Jrnl (Lincoln, NE) 14 June 9/5: I could see that the booze-hank was strong upon him [...] He wanted the dice to tell him that he could call for his’n in the way of the wet stuff.
1905		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Mother’s Duplicate’ Sporting Times 7 Jan. 1/4: Handing over the ‘wet’ / For his lush-loving pal to imbibe.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Apr. 4/8: There was enough tucker an’ wet stuff left over to see us through another picnic.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 July 2nd sect. 10/6: He suggested a drink and the little group adjourned [...] for a ‘wet’.
1916		B.E.F. Times 1 Dec. (2006) 128/1: Though the beer may be rotten it still is a ‘wet.’.
1922		‘Sapper’ Black Gang 382: Draw up Peter, old lad [...] and put your nose inside a wet.
1930		R. Whitfield Green Ice (1988) 29: He was taking graft without splitting – on the wet stuff.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 154: Have a drink first, they’d be bound to hold him for hours questioning. No, if he had a wet they were stone ginger to smell it.
1943		‘Henry Green’ Caught (2001) 126: Nothing was said to Arthur if he went to get a wet or a wine off Richard.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 130: ‘Have a wet with me?’ said Dad.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 22: Here, buy yourself a couple of wets.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 165: The proper form and ceremony after having a few wets was to have a binder.

(b) (US) an anti-Prohibitionist, who wants alcohol to remain legal.

1896		Chicago Record 11 Feb. 6/5: Even though there might be some precints where the ‘wets’ outnumbered the ‘drys’ — yet the whole country would go dry [DA].
1915		Coconino Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 9 July 4/2: It is claimed that the ‘wets’ put one over on the ‘drys’ at the christening of the battleship Arizona.
1926		L.C. Wimberly ‘American Political Cant’ in AS II:3 138: The war on liquor gave birth and currency to ‘prohibition,’ ‘bootlegging,’ ‘drys,’ ‘wets.’.
1931		Ade Old-Time Saloon 3: Nothing will be said or done with the intent of giving offense to the extreme Drys or the extreme Wets or that inbetween population which may be classed as Slightly Moist.
1936		Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 565: So recently as 1929 the Encyclopaedia Britannica listed bootlegger, speakeasy, dry, wet, [...] as American slang terms.
2017		M. Forsyth Short History of Drunkenness 149: The Spanish conquistadors were, even then, wts [...] the Aztecs [...] dry.

(c) the act of urination.

1949		R. Chandler Little Sister 124: One of the boxers [...] made a wet on the marble seat.
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 99: Everybody’s doing, making wet in here.
1974		Adamson & Hanford Zimmer’s Essay 47: The last chat, sitting in his own wet, did not move.

(d) (US campus) a drinking party.

1967–8

Baker et al. CUSS.