- wet
- 1. (the bed)to urinate in an inappropriate placeAnd in various other phrases, such as wet yourself, to urinate in your clothing; wet your pants, to urinate in your trousers, etc.:Boys and girls who steal, vandalize, or wet the bed...(Bradbury, 1976)Grooters felt her legs almost doubling underneath her and she wet herself. (Davidson, 1978)Merriman thought he was going to wet his pants. (M. Thomas, 1980)2. a drink of an intoxicantSeldom on its own:Bring me a wet. I feel parched. (Cookson, 1967)A wet canteen or bar is a place where intoxicants are served:We spent a very pleasant evening, the First Battalion having a wet canteen, and when we started back we were three sheets in the wind. (F. Richards, 1933)The sitting room of his cottage had a fully stocked wet bar. (Erdman, 1993)Wet goods or stuff were intoxicants, especially in American Prohibition use:The wet goods flowed. You couldn't move all of it. (Longstreet, 1956, describing the Prohibition years)A wet-hand is a drunkard, who might be said too often to wet his mouth, beard, quill, or whistle:Simply must wet m'whistle. (Manning, 1960)To wet a bargain was to drink together to seal it:... and be dam we'll wet our bargain. (Somerville and Ross, 1908)To wet the baby's head is to drink intoxicants to celebrate a birth.
How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms. R. W. Holder. 2014.