Whet
/ˈwɛt/ noun, verb
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The act of whetting something.
- 2 That which whets or sharpens; especially, an appetizer.
"sips, drams, and whets"
Verb
- 1 To hone or rub on with some substance, as a piece of stone, for the purpose of sharpening – see whetstone. transitive
"Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?"
- 2 sharpen by rubbing, as on a whetstone wordnet
- 3 To stimulate or make more keen. transitive
"to whet one's appetite or one's courage"
- 4 make keen or more acute wordnet
- 5 To preen. obsolete, transitive
Example
More examples"Tom usually has a glass of wine before dinner to whet his appetite."
Etymology
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”).