Library / English Dictionary

WHET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: whetted    , whetting   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sharpen by rubbing, as on a whetstone

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "whet" is one way to...):

sharpen (make sharp or sharper)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make keen or more acute

Example:

whet my appetite

Synonyms:

quicken; whet

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "whet" is one way to...):

excite; stimulate; stir (stir feelings in)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

Every odd moment he could find he had the knife and stone out and was whetting away.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I have an idea that Van Helsing thinks he knows, too, but he will only let out enough at a time to whet curiosity.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Soft scene, daring demonstration, I would not have; and I stood in peril of both: a weapon of defence must be prepared—I whetted my tongue: as he reached me, I asked with asperity, whom he was going to marry now?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was nothing pretty about it, nothing divine—only two cowardly moving things that sat whetting steel upon stone, and a group of other moving things, cowardly and otherwise, that looked on.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

We men are all in a fever of excitement, except Harker, who is calm; his hands are cold as ice, and an hour ago I found him whetting the edge of the great Ghoorka knife which he now always carries with him.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Whet, whet, whet,—Humphrey Van Weyden sharpening his knife in a ship’s galley and trying its edge with his thumb!

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Still calmly, though my heart was going pitapat, I pulled out Louis’s dirk and began to whet it on the stone.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Next morning, after breakfast, Thomas Mugridge began his whet, whet, whet.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He whetted it up and down all day long.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Then he would put it on the stone again and whet, whet, whet, till I could have laughed aloud, it was so very ludicrous.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)