wetter

Pluralwetters

1. 1
   adjective

   Comparative of wet.

   The soil near the river is wetter than the ground up on the hill.

   After the storm, the streets were even wetter than before.

   Note

   The comparative applies to every kind of wet, not just soaked ground. A wetter summer is rainier, a wetter nib lays down more ink, a wetter burrito carries more sauce, and a wetter recording has more effects on it. The t doubles before the suffix. The same spelling also names someone who wets things, so the sentence decides whether wetter is describing something or naming someone.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Someone who urinates in bed during sleep, especially a child.

   The camp nurse kept a quiet list so any wetter could get a fresh set of sheets in the morning.

   He had been a wetter until the age of seven, much to his embarrassment.

3. 3
   noun

   Agent noun of wet.

   In the tannery, the wetter soaks each skin until it softens enough to work.

   The wetter passed the moistened sheets along to the press operator.

   Note

   An agent noun built on the action of wetting. It names a worker inside a process, such as the one who soaks skins in a tannery or damps sheets before the press. It is not a person who is a wet. The British wet, a moderate Conservative, and the American wet, an opponent of Prohibition, belong to wet itself. The plural is regular: wetters.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A substance that lowers a liquid's surface tension so it spreads and soaks in more readily; a surfactant.

   Farmers mix a wetter into the pesticide so it clings to waxy leaves.

   Without a wetter, the dye sat on top of the fabric instead of penetrating it.

   Similarsurfactant

5. 5
   noundialectalMulticultural London Englishcountable

   A knife used to stab people; a weapon for committing stabbings.

   Word on the street was that he always carried a wetter for protection.

   The gang member ditched the wetter in a storm drain after the fight.

   Similarblade, knife

   Note

   Street slang from Multicultural London English. A wetting is a stabbing, so the wetter is the blade that does it. Yanko's "Next Up" (2019) sets the pair side by side, with two rivals each drawing a knife and then questioning which of them actually did the wetting. The word stays inside that slang register. Elsewhere, listeners will hear the plain comparative or a bedwetter, so only the setting makes the knife clear.

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