Word.ws English Dictionary

wetback

/ˈwɛtbæk/

wetback noun: a Mexican or Central American who illegally enters the United States of America from its southern border.

Noun

wetback (plural wetbacks)

  1. (derogatory, slang) A Mexican or Central American who illegally enters the United States of America from its southern border.
    • Mr. HUDSPETH. […] I stood here and did all in my power to keep the “wetback” […] from coming across. And I stand here to-day asking for that.
    • The CHAIRMAN. […] What is a “wetback”?
    • Mr. HUDSPETH. You have heard a “wetback” described; he is a fellow that crosses the river surreptitiously.1920, Temporary admission of illiterate Mexican laborers: Hearings before the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of Representatives, 66th Congress, 2nd Session, p. 141
    Synonyms:
    mojado
  2. (derogatory, slang) A person of the mestizo race; a mojado.

Examples of wetback in a sentence

  • They had revealed that thousands of “wetbacks” (i.e., Mexican laborers who wade the Rio Grande in search of work in the U.S.) lived in squalor and poverty, sometimes were paid as little as $8 a week.1950 March 27, “United Nations: Objectivity”, in Time:
  • He went through a couple of bottles of wine and made a speech denouncing wetbacks and Asian immigrants.1997, Saul Bellow, The Actual, New York: Viking, page 12:
  • A successful wetback, the limo driver was thinking—that was his assessment of his Mexican-American passenger.2015, John Irving, chapter 2, in Avenue of Mysteries, Canada: Knopf:

Synonyms of wetback

Forms of wetback

pluralwetbacks

Origin of wetback

First used in the 1920s from the presumed effects of swimming or wading across the Rio Grande. Used by the U.S. Government in 1954 with Operation Wetback.

Words formed from wetback

Questions about wetback

What does wetback mean?
Wetback means a Mexican or Central American who illegally enters the United States of America from its southern border.
How do you use wetback in a sentence?
They had revealed that thousands of “wetbacks” (i.e., Mexican laborers who wade the Rio Grande in search of work in the U.S.) lived in squalor and poverty, sometimes were paid as little as $8 a week.
What part of speech is wetback?
Wetback is a noun.
How do you pronounce wetback?
Wetback is pronounced /ˈwɛtbæk/.
What is the plural of wetback?
The plural of wetback is wetbacks.

Words near wetback in the dictionary

  1. weta
  2. wetas
  3. Wetaskiwin
  4. wetawd
  5. wetawds
  6. wetback
  7. wetbacks
  8. wetbird
  9. wetbirds
  10. wetbrain
  11. wetbrains

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wetback (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-wetback.ogg.

Cite this entry: “wetback.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wetback. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.