Wiktionary

whet

English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English whetten, from Old English hwettan (“to whet, sharpen, incite, encourage”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjan, from Proto-Germanic *hwatjaną (“to incite, sharpen”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₁d- (“sharp”).

Cognate with Dutch wetten (“to whet, sharpen”), German wetzen (“to whet, sharpen”), Icelandic hvetja (“to whet, encourage, catalyze”), dialectal Danish hvæde (“to whet”).

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

whet (third-person singular simple present whets, present participle whetting, simple past and past participle whetted or whet)

  1. (transitive) To hone or rub on with some substance, as a piece of stone, for the purpose of sharpening – see whetstone.
  2. (transitive) To stimulate or make more keen.
    to whet one's appetite or one's courage
    • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar, / I have not slept.
    • 1925-29, Mahadev Desai (translator), M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part I, chapter xv[1]:
      My faith in vegetarianism grew on me from day to day. Salt's book whetted my appetite for dietetic studies. I went in for all books available on vegetarianism and read them.
    • 2003 October 9, Naomi Wolf, “The Porn Myth”, in New York Magazine‎[2]:
      In the end, porn doesn’t whet men’s appetites—it turns them off the real thing.
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To preen.

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

Noun edit

whet (plural whets)

  1. The act of whetting something.
  2. That which whets or sharpens; especially, an appetizer.
    • 1714 July 30 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “MONDAY, July 19, 1714”, in The Spectator, number 569; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume VI, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
      sips, drams, and whets
      The spelling has been modernized.
    • 1769, Elizabeth Raffald, The Experienced English Housekeeper:
      To make a nice Whet before Dinner […]
    • 1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major:
      A really good game, to my mind, must have an element, however slight, of physical danger to the player. This is the great whet to skilled performance.

Derived terms edit

Anagrams edit

Middle English edit

Noun edit

whet

  1. Alternative form of whete

Yola edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English whete, from Old English hwǣte, from Proto-West Germanic *hwaitī.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

whet

  1. wheat

References edit

  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 78
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