How to use whet in a sentence
14 example sentences · verb, noun
Whet means to sharpen (something, such as a knife or sword) by rubbing on an object, especially a whetstone; to hone. Example: “The inside of a valve has whetted parts constructed of corrosion-resistant material.”
Examples of whet by meaning
verbTo make more keen or to stimulate (someone's appetite, interest, etc.); to hone, to sharpen.
- to whet one's appetite or one's courage
- Salt's book whetted my appetite for dietetic studies.1925-29, Mahadev Desai (translator), M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part I, chapter xv
- In the end, porn doesn’t whet men’s appetites—it turns them off the real thing.2003 October 9, Naomi Wolf, “The Porn Myth”, in New York Magazine
nounA thing which makes one's desire, interest, etc., more keen; an incitement, an inducement.
- This is the great whet to skilled performance.1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major
More sentences with whet
- The inside of a valve has whetted parts constructed of corrosion-resistant material.From the entry whetted
- With his whetted dagger he slit a gash in the serpent's middle.1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 46. From the entry gash
- In eighteenth century France celery soup was a means of whetting the amorous appetite.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 58. From the entry celery
- De Mandat-Grancey's interest in America was whetted further by a dashing and somewhat mysterious ex-Confederate soldier named Gifford F.1984, Howard R[oberts] Lamar, “Introduction”, in E[dmond] de Mandat-Grancey, translated by William Conn, Cow-boys and Colonels: Narrative…. From the entry freewheeling
- In the past, drinking had been a thing for parties, or infares as they called them locally, or something before dinner to whet one's taste.2011, Howard Fast, The American. From the entry infare
- In the end, "mech" inventions clearly whet financial appetites; the "orgo" approach remains messier and thus riskier as far as investment capital is concerned.2007, Lesley Alexandra Sharp, Bodies, Commodities, and Biotechnologies, →ISBN. From the entry orgo
- These two tours had whetted the colonies' appetite for Royal visits, and by the turn of the century that appetite was positively selachian.1963, Walkabout, volume 29, page 12. From the entry selachian
- From exercising in the open air all that delightful, breezeful morning, their appetites became immensely whetted for a full enjoyment of the rich repast.1906, Mattie Sampson Smith, “At the Picnic”, in Miss Claire's pupils, The National Baptist Publishing House, page 78. From the entry breezeful
- Coming face to face with a basker had whetted my appetite, and I was keen to get to the bottom of some of the mysteries surrounding Cetorhinus maximus.1992, BBC Wildlife, BBC. From the entry basker
- Or in the dae, a-vleeren droo The leafy trees, the huosse gookoo Da zing to mowers that da zet Their zives on end, an' stan' to whet.1928, The Pocket Book of Poems and Songs: for the Open Air, page 169. From the entry zive
Meaning of whet
- verb To sharpen (something, such as a knife or sword) by rubbing on an object, especially a whetstone; to hone.
- verb Of an animal such as a boar: to sharpen (its horns, teeth, tusks, etc.) by rubbing on a stone, etc., in preparation for an attack.
- verb To make more keen or to stimulate (someone's appetite, interest, etc.); to hone, to sharpen.
Questions about whet in a sentence
- How do you use whet in a sentence?
- Whet is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The inside of a valve has whetted parts constructed of corrosion-resistant material.”
- What is a short sentence with whet?
- “to whet one's appetite or one's courage”
- What does whet mean?
- Whet means to sharpen (something, such as a knife or sword) by rubbing on an object, especially a whetstone; to hone.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: whet (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use whet in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/whet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.