Whet

English

Verb

Whet (third-person singular simple present Whets, present participle whetting, simple past and past participle whetted)

1. (transitive) To hone or rub on with some substance, as a piece of stone, for the purpose of sharpening.
2. (transitive) To stimulate or make more keen.

Thesaurus

accelerate, aculeate, acuminate, aggravate, agitate, animate, antepast, antipasto, aperitif, appetizer, arouse, awaken, bait, barb, beef up, bestir, blow the coals, blow up, bribe, canape, carrot, challenge, complicate, concentrate, condense, consolidate, cultivate, cuspidate, deepen, double, edge, encouragement, enhance, enliven, exacerbate, exaggerate, excite, exhilarate, fan, fan the flame, feed the fire, ferment, file, fillip, fire, foment, foretaste, galvanize, grind, heat, heat up, heighten, hone, hop up, hot up, impassion, incense, incentive, incite, incitement, inducement, inflame, infuse life into, instigate, intensify, interest, invigorate, invitation, jazz up, key up, kindle, lure, magnify, make complex, make sensitive, nettle, oilstone, payment, percentage, persuasive, pick up, pique, point, profit, provocation, provoke, put up to, quicken, rally, ramify, redouble, refine, reinforce, renew, reset, resuscitate, revive, reward, rouse, sensibilize, sensitize, set, set on, sharp, sharpen, sic on, smorgasbord, soup up, spiculate, spur, step up, stimulate, stimulation, stimulative, stimulus, stir, stir the embers, stir up, strap, strengthen, strop, sweetener, sweetening, taper, tickle, triple, wake, waken, whip up, work up

Etymology

From Middle English whetten, from Old English hwettan (“to whet, sharpen, incite, encourage”), from Proto-Germanic *hwatjanan (“to incite, sharpen”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷēd- (“sharp”). Cognate with Dutch wetten (“to whet, sharpen”), German wetzen (“to whet, sharpen”), Danish dialectal hvæde (“to whet”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʍɛt/ SAMPA: /WEt/
• IPA: /wɛt/ SAMPA: /wEt/ (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
• Rhymes: -ɛt
• Homophones: wet (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Translations

hone or rub on with some substance for the purpose of sharpening

Dutch: wetten (nl), slijpen (nl), scherpen (nl) German: wetzen (de) Russian: точить (ru) (točít'), править (ru) (právit')

Spanish: afilar (es) Swedish: slipa (sv), skärpa (sv), fila (sv)

stimulate or make more keen

Dutch: wetten (nl), scherpen (nl)

Russian: возбуждать (ru), обострять (ru), разжигать (ru)

Anagrams

• thew