colloq. [f. WET v.] A drink or draught of some alcoholic beverage; a glass of liquor.
In the 18th c. app. sometimes confused with WHET sb. 2 b.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, V. 125. At Noon he gets up for a wet and to Dine.
c. 1752. Narr. Journ. Ir. Gentl. Eng. (1869), 47. Valerius protested he could not walk back to dinner until he had taken a wet, as he called it: and … he went into a tavern … and produced some cold roast beef, Cheshire cheese, and a cool tankard.
1789. Trifler, No. xxxviii. 487. John Whip enquired of his knot of brethren on the roof whether they would take a wet.
1880. Baring-Gould, Mehalah, xxiv. Do you, Elijah, hand a wet round.
1881. A. C. Grant, Bush-Life Queensland, iii. (1882), 22. No bargain could be completed without a ‘wet’ over it.
1890. Becton’s Christmas Ann., 17. You look dry; let’s have a wet.
1910. Louise Gerard, Golden Centipede, x. Chrys won’t dare to hide the wets when there are visitors in the house.
