Word.ws English Dictionary

whet

UK/ˈwɛt//ˈwɛt/

whet verb: to sharpen (something, such as a knife or sword) by rubbing on an object, especially a whetstone; to hone.

whet: to sharpen (something, such as a knife or sword) by rubbing on an object, especially a whetstone;...
Image: xofc, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

whet (third-person singular simple present whets, present participle whetting, simple past and past participle whetted or (nonstandard) whet)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To sharpen (something, such as a knife or sword) by rubbing on an object, especially a whetstone; to hone.
    • Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • And the Mower whets his ſithe,a. 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 33
    Synonyms:
    steel, strop
  2. (transitive) 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.
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To make more keen or to stimulate (someone's appetite, interest, etc.); to hone, to sharpen.
    • to whet one's appetite or one's courage
    • Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar, / I have not slept.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  4. (figuratively, obsolete, transitive) To encourage (someone) to do something; to incite, to urge.
  5. (figuratively, obsolete, transitive) To inculcate or teach (habits, information, etc.).
  6. (figuratively, obsolete, rare, transitive) Of a bird: to preen (its feathers).
    Synonyms:
    primp, smarten up
  7. (figuratively, intransitive) To make more keen; to stimulate.
  8. (figuratively, intransitive) To prepare for an attack.
  9. (figuratively, intransitive, obsolete) To consume drink or food as an appetizer.

Noun

whet (plural whets)

  1. An act of sharpening something by rubbing on an object, especially a whetstone.
  2. (broadly, dialectal, archaic except UK) An occasion to do something; a go, a turn.
  3. (broadly, dialectal, archaic except UK) A period of time between two sharpenings of a scythe.
  4. (figuratively) An item of drink or food consumed as an appetizer or to ward off hunger until a meal; specifically, a small amount of liquor drunk as an appetizer; a dram, a nip.
    • sips, drams, and whets1714 July 29 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “SUNDAY, July 19, 1714”, in The Spectator, number 569; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume VI...
    • To make a nice Whet before Dinner […]1769, Elizabeth Raffald, The Experienced English Housekeeper
  5. (figuratively) A thing which makes one's desire, interest, etc., more keen; an incitement, an inducement.
    • A really good game, to my mind, must have an element, however slight, of physical danger to the player. This is the great whet to skilled performance.1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major

whet meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Malayalam

whet in Tamil

(transitive) to sharpen (something) by rubbing on an object; of an animal: to sharpen (its horns, teeth, tusks, etc.) by rubbing — see also hone
இடங்கம் iṭaṅkam

whet in Marathi

to whet, sharpen
पाजणे pājṇe

whet in Urdu

whet
اشتہا بڑھانا ištehā baṛḥānā
to whet, sharpen
گھسنا ghisnā

whet in Malayalam

hone, sharpen, strop
രാകുക, ഇരാകുക, തേക്കുക, മൂർച്ചപ്പെടുത്തുക, തേച്ചു മൂർച്ച കൂട്ടുക, കൂർപ്പിക്കുക
excite, stimulate, arouse
ഉത്തേജിപ്പിക്കുക, പ്രേരിപ്പിക്കുക, രസം വളർത്തുക, പ്രചോദിപ്പിക്കുക, ഉദ്ദീപിപ്പിക്കുക, ആവേശം കൊള്ളിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
whet in Kannada
ಮಸೆ, ತೀಡು, ಸಾಣೆಹಿಡಿ, ಉಜ್ಜಿ ಹರಿತಮಾಡು
whet in Sanskrit
क्ष्णौति kṣṇáuti
whet in Arabic
حَدَّدَ ḥaddada, شَحَذَ šaḥaḏa
whet in Thai
ลับ láp

Examples of whet in a sentence

  • Here roams the wolf, the eagle whets his beak.1812, Lord Byron, “Canto II”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh...
  • 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:
  • Oh, so now you wanna blow up a police station? [...] Nursing home full of old folks just whet your appetite — now you wanna kill a bunch of cops.2012, Vince Gilligan, “Live Free or Die”, in Breaking Bad, season 5, episode 1 (television production), spoken by Mike Ehrmantraut...

All 14 example sentences with whet

Synonyms of whet

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of whet

Forms of whet

Verb
third-person singular presentwhets
present participlewhetting
past participlewhetted
pastwhetted
past participle (nonstandard)whet
past (nonstandard)whet
second-person singular present (archaic)whettest
second-person singular past (archaic)whettedst
third-person singular present (archaic)whetteth
Noun
pluralwhets

Past tense of whet: whetted

Origin of whet

The verb is derived from Middle English whetten (“to make the edge of (a sword, tool, etc.) sharp; to grunt, snort; to scrape the ground with (one’s feet); to make a chattering or grinding sound; (figurative) of a person: to prepare for battle; to make (one’s wit) alert or keen; to strengthen (one’s heart or will); to incite, provoke”), from Old English hwettan (“to sharpen, whet; (figurative) to encourage, incite”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjan (“to sharpen, whet”), from Proto-Germanic *hwatjaną (“to sharpen, whet; (figurative) to incite, instigate”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₁d- (“sharp”). Verb sense 1.3.3 (“to inculcate or teach (habits, information, etc.)”) is from Deuteronomy 6:6–7 in the Bible (New International Version): “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children.” The word translated as impress is Hebrew שָׁנַן (shanán, “to be sharp; to sharpen, whet”). The noun is derived from the verb. cognates * Dialectal Danish hvæde (“to whet”) * Dutch wetten (“to whet, sharpen”) * German wetzen (“to whet, sharpen”) * Icelandic hvetja (“to whet, encourage, catalyze”)

Words formed from whet

Phrases with whet

Words that rhyme with whet

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about whet

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.
What is whet in Tamil?
Whet in Tamil is இடங்கம் (iṭaṅkam). See Whet meaning in Tamil.
How do you use whet in a sentence?
Here roams the wolf, the eagle whets his beak.
What part of speech is whet?
Whet can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce whet?
Whet is pronounced /ˈwɛt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of whet?
The past tense of whet is whetted.

Words near whet in the dictionary

  1. Wherrys
  2. wherve
  3. wherves
  4. Wherwell
  5. wherwith
  6. whet
  7. whet slate
  8. whet slates
  9. whet someone's appetite
  10. whether
  11. whethering

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whet (page history and authors); पाजणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); اشتہا بڑھانا (Urdu) (page history and authors); whet (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); whet (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); क्ष्णौति (Sanskrit) (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.

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