wets

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of wet.

   Each wave wets the lower steps of the pier as the tide rises.

   She wets the brush before mixing the paint.

   Note

   The -s form pairs with a singular subject in the present. After a plural subject or a modal, the bare form returns (they wet, it will wet). The same form also carries the verb's specialist and slang uses. In soldering, solder that wets a metal forms a true intermetallic bond with it. In US and Multicultural London English slang, someone who wets another person kills or seriously injures them.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of wet.

   During Prohibition, the wets pushed Congress to make beer legal again.

   Wets in the big cities finally won repeal in 1933.

   Note

   Two political camps share this plural, on opposite sides of the Atlantic. In Britain, wets were moderate Conservatives who resisted Margaret Thatcher's hard-line policies in the 1980s. The label was meant as an insult, so use it with care. In the United States, wets were people who supported drinking and opposed Prohibition. Context, not spelling, tells the reader which camp is meant.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2