Forms: α. 1 wǽt, 3 wet (dat. wete), Orm. wæt (dat. wæte), 3–6 wete, (5 whete), 4–6 weete, 4–5, 6– Sc. weet, 6 weat(e, 5–6 north. and Sc. weytt, 5–7 Sc. weit. β 4 north. wat(e. γ. 6– wet, 6 wette, 7 wett. δ. 9 Sc. wat. [OE. wǽt neut. (substantival use of wǽt adj., = WFris. wiet), giving normally ME. wēt, wete, weete and later weat(e. The other ME. and mod. forms are due to the influence of the adj. OE. had also wǽta wk. masc., represented in ME. by WETE; in later use the two become undistinguishable, and some of the examples given here (in sense 1) may really be survivals of wǽta.]
1. Moisture; liquid or moist substance.
In occasional use applied to water, blood, sweat, sap, etc.
α. c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxiii. § 5. Swa þæt heora nan oðres mearce ne ofereode, & se cile ʓeþrowode wið ða hæto, & þæt wæt wið þam dryʓum.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 73. Hise feðres fallen for ðe hete, And he dun mide to ðe wete Falleð in ðat welle grund.
a. 1240. Ureisun, in O. E. Hom., I. 187. Hwa is þenne unwaschen þe haueþ þis halwende wet inwið his heorte.
c. 1290. St. Michael, 668, in S. Eng. Leg., 318. Man hath of eorþe al is bodi, and of watere he hauez wete.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Can. Yeom. Prol. & T., 634. I se wel how ye swete, Haue heer a clooth, and wipe awey the wete.
c. 1400. Beryn, 1022. [He] smote þe Damesell vndir þe ere, þe weet gon vpward spyn.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, IV. 3375. Whan he [Phoebus] … drieþ vp þe moysture & þe weete Of herbe & floure with his feruent hete.
1483. Cath. Angl., 415/1. Weytt, maditas.
a. 1500. Hist. K. Boccus & Sydracke (? 1510), M ij b. After a man hath in hym most Of wete of dryeth hete or colde Shall his complexcyon be tolde.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 124. The quyckeset wyll take no rote, excepte it haue greate weate.
γ. 1597. Shaks., Lover’s Compl., 40. Like vsery applying wet to wet.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Providence, xxix. When th’ earth was dry, thou mad’st a sea of wet.
1709. J. Ward, Yng. Math. Guide (1734), 437. Divide the Sum of all those Dips or Wet Inches by the Number of Places you dipp’d in, and the Quotient will be the Mean Wet of all those Dips.
1784. J. Twamley, Dairying Exempl., 32. If you cut the Cheese when young, you will find, that there is a Moisture, or Wet, in every Place where the Eye is,… which Wet or Moisture is called Tears.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, liv. The foam was on his lips; the wet stood on his forehead.
1894. K. Grahame, Pagan P., 129. The drippings made worms of wet in the thick dust of the road.
1897. Max Pemberton, Queen of Jesters, iii. 105. The floor of the staircase was covered with wet and slime.
2. Rainy, or damp weather.
α. c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 123. Man … þoleð … hwile druie and hwile wete, hwile chele, wile hete.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VI. 21. I haue walked ful wyde In weete and in druye.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), vi. 23. Þer falles oft sithes grete derth of corne … by cause of ouer mykill wete.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xii. 4. Now in hurt, now in heyll, now in weytt, now in blast.
c. 1480. Henryson, Garm. Gude Ladeis, 24. Hir mantill of humilitie, To tholl bayth wind & weit.
1650. J. Nicoll, Diary (Bann. Club), 27. That nicht being … full of wind and weit. Ibid., 32. Tempestis of weit and wind.
1790. Burns, Young Jockie, iii. Thro’ wind and weet, thro’ frost and snaw.
β. a. 1300. Cursor M., 6365. Ne for na drught, ne for na wat, Changed neuer þai þare state.
1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 7611. In wate and drye, in hate and cald.
γ. 1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 92. By sowing in wet, is little to get.
1577. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. 28. There is nothyng more hurtfull to Winter Corne,… then the wette of Winter.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. iii. 157. This distempered messenger of wet, The manie colour’d Iris.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time, II. (1724), I. 801. Great numbers came to see him. But, after they had stood long in the wet, he disappointed them.
1801. Wordsw., Sparrow’s Nest, 8. The Sparrow’s dwelling, which … in wet or dry My sister Emmeline and I Together visited.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xviii. Make haste in out of the wet, Tom.
1860. Froude, Hist. Eng., xxxiii. VI. 419. The sermon intended to be preached at the stake was adjourned, in consequence of the wet, to St. Mary’s.
1905. Sat. Rev., 15 July, 82/1. It is the alternation of wet and fine which brings every crop in its season.
b. Atmospheric moisture precipitated as rain, mist or dew.
α. c. 1290. St. Michael, 604, in S. Eng. Leg., 317. Ȝwane þe sonne hath þudere idrawe þene mist for hete, It ne may no feor for þe colde, ake bicometh al to wete, And gaderez þare to one watur-cloude.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. vii. (S.T.S.), I. 41. Ane horribill tempest … made this nobil prince … Invisibill with thik schoure of wete and myst.
1794. Burns, My Nannie’s Awa’, 6. And violets bathe in the weet o’ the morn.
γ. 1613. T. Campion, Relat. Royal Entert., A 4 b. Because some wet had fallen that day in the forenoone … all her footway was spred with broad cloth.
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. 68. The Pace of the Moyrye, by reason of much wet lately fallen,… was hard to passe.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 433. And now the Sun … Had … dry’d the wet From drooping plant, or dropping tree.
1830. Herschel, Study Nat. Phil., II. vi. (1851), 159. When no rain or visible wet is falling.
1883. Black, Shandon Bells, xxiv. The silent thin wet that seemed to hang in the atmosphere like a vapour.
1901. A. M. Fairbairn, in W. B. Selbie, Life (1914), 385. Nothing but wet and water fills the whole scene.
c. Rain, water or damp regarded as deleterious or detrimental. Also, standing water that collects in pools, or that makes the ground muddy.
α. c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 2006. Þre dayes þroly þai … duret vnder hacche, For wete of þe waghes þat wastis ouer hed. Ibid., 9653. [They] Turnit to þere tenttes … Thurgh the rug, & the rayn, þat raiked aboue, All wery for wete, & for wan strokes.
c. 1480. Henryson, Swallow & Birds, 212. The woddis grene wer wallowit with the weit.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 54. Pelte-rotte … commeth of greatte wete, specyally in woode countreyes.
1545. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., VIII. 341. xxiiij pyonaris … quhilkis drew the cannonis and artalȝe … withtin the munitioun hous to saife the stokis thairof from weit.
1595. in J. Bulloch, Pynours (1887), 68. Salt and vther girnell guid subject to the perrell of weytt and rayn.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (Bann. Club), I. 207. Monro caused bigg up betuixt the croces ane court de guard, for saiffeing his souldiers frae weitt and cauld on the night.
γ. 1684. J. S., Profit & Pleas. United, 74. The Infirmitie of this Creature [the Ass] is mostly in the Feel, occasioned by standing or travelling in the weit.
1710. Hilman, Tusser Rediv., Feb. (1744), 16. The reason why unharrowed Beans set in Clay are apt to dye, is because the Wet fills the Holes and rots them.
1730. Swift, Panegyr. Dean, 109. Familiar grown to dirt and wet, Though daggled round, I scorn to fret.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., lix. The wet had penetrated my dress.
1858. J. McD. Stuart, Jrnls. Explor. Australia (1864), 18. All our rations … being perfectly saturated with wet.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, I. 74. On high, safe out of wet’s way.
186[?]. Whitman, Amer. Feuillage, Poems (1868), 95. Parties of snowy herons wading in the wet to seek worms.
1883. Hardy, Wessex Tales (1888), I. 5. The gable-end of the cottage was stained with wet.
Comb. 1902. Daily Chron., 30 June, 3/7. Wet-proof wire coverings.
d. (With pl.) A burst, storm, downpour, shower, or spell of rain.
α. c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 217. On þe day at he was berid on, þer fell suche a wete and a rayn, þat ij dayes after þai mott nott berie hym.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. xii. 53. A huge weit gan doun pour and tumbill.
1545. Taverner, Erasm. Prov., 53. A mysselyng rayn gendreth a great weat.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), II. 312. Terribill windes with raine and weittis quhilk continewit xlviij houris togidder.
1606. in Sel. Rec. Kirk Sess. Aberd. (Spalding Club), 53. The gryt invndatioun of weittis liklie to rott the cornis.
1650. J. Nicoll, Diary (Bann. Club), 8. Much unseasonable weather, the lyke quhairof wes not usuall for weittis, cold, frostes and tempestis.
1661. J. Childrey, Brit. Baconica, 65. Earthquakes always succeed great wets.
γ. 1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xxi. (1632), 1011. The weather extreame in wets and frosts.
1726. J. Laurence, Agric., 281. Gardens which … are apt to be overflowed or soak’d with Water in the Winter, (for Summer Wets never hurt them).
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 47. The Wets that generally fall then.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. II. 391. The weather often turning into sudden wets.
3. Liquor, drink. In mod. use only slang; esp. in heavy wet, malt liquor.
α. c. 960. Æthelwold, Bened. Rule, xliii. 69. Ac he ana ʓereorde … and be dæle æt and wæt ʓewanod sy.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 66. He ne mæʓ ætes oððe wætes brucan. Ibid., Saints’ Lives, xvi. 270. He … to micel nimð on æte oððe on wæte [c. 1175 Lamb. Hom. 103 on ete oðer on wete].
c. 1200. Ormin, 7852. Himm birrþ lokenn himm full wel Fra luffsumm æte & wæte.
γ. 1821. Egan, Life in London, iii. 226. The soldiers and their trulls were seen tossing off the heavy wet and spirits.
1821. [? Egan], Real Life Lond., I. xviii. 392, note. Heavy wet—A well-known appellation for beer, porter, or ale.
1839. J. Grant, Trav. Town, I. 167. Pots of foaming heavy wet.
1894. Astley, 50 Years Life, II. 197. After a lot of talk and a certain amount of ‘wet’ he and I made three matches.
† 4. Phr. Without wet, without being wetted. To take wet, to be injured by damp. Obs.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 18547. Apon þe see wit-vten wete Gangand als apon a strete.
1513. [see TAKE v. 44 b].
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., 378. After they had beene weakened with this daungerous wet that they tooke.
1631. Pellham, Gods Power, 24. Wee found that all our Frittars of the Whale were almost spoyled with the wet that they had taken.
1693. Locke, Educ., § 7. He that considers how Mischievous and Mortal a thing, taking Wet in the Feet is to those, who have been bred nicely.
1712. [see TAKE v. 44 b].
† 5. In wet = in fresco (see FRESCO sb. 2). Obs.
1622. Peacham, Compl. Gent. (1634), xii. 141. He wrought in distemper (as we call it) or wet with size, sixe histories of patient Iob. Ibid., 149. Making in his Cloyster many Histories in wet, after Masaccio’s manner.
