westward 
2. Toward the ecclesiastical west. See west. 
Mass is celebrated by tbe priest standing behind the 
altar with his face westicard. 
E, A, Freeman, Venice, p. 105. 
Westward ho ! to the west : an old cry of London water- 
men on the Thames in hailing passen;;ers bound west- 
ward, taken as the title of a play by Uekker and Wclister 
and of a novel by Cliarles Kingsley. 
Oil. There lies your way, due west. 
Vio, IXien westward-ho ! 
Sliah:, T. -\., iii. 1. 140. 
westward (west'wjird), (/. [< wculward, «r7c.] 
Being toward the "west: bearing or tending 
westward: as, a ircstwa rd jtosition or course; 
the wc.itirard trend of the mountains. 
westwardly (west'wiird-li), <i. [< u-cstward + 
-///I.] Bearing toward or from the west ; west- 
erly. [Rare.] 
On the lOth, the [ice-]pack was driven in by a westwardly 
wind, and . . . this open space was closed. 
C. F. Hall, Polar Expedition, p. 259. 
westwardly (west'wjivd-li), adr. [< westward- 
ly, «.] In a direction bearing toward the west : 
as. to pass Ke.^twiirdly. 
westwards (west'wiirdz), adv. [< ME. *west- 
trardca (= I), westwaartu = G. wcstwdrts); as 
vcstirard + adv. gen. -.v.] Same as westward. 
westyH, "• [ME., also weKtig, < AS. westU/, des- 
ert, < ireste, a desert, waste : see wastc^.] Waste ; 
desert. Laijamon, 1. 1120. 
westy- (wes'ti), o. Dizzy; giddy. Hay; Halli- 
well. [Prov. Eug.] 
Whiles he lies wallowing with a westy head, 
And palish cai-cass, on his brothel bed. 
Bp. Hall, .Satires, IV. i. 158. 
wetl (wet), a. [E. dial, and Se. also leect and 
«i«<; < ME. wet, weet, wat, < AS. wa:t = OFries. 
wet, wcit = Icel. vdtr = Sw. vdt = Dan. ruad, wet, 
moist; akin to AS. wsetvr, etc., water, and to 
Goth, watu, etc., water: see wiit< r.] 1. Covered 
with orperineatedbyamoistortluid substance; 
charged with moisture: as, a wet sponge; icet 
land; tcet cheeks; a «,y( painting (one on which 
the paint is still semi-fluid). 
Ziff the Ertlie were made nioyst and weet with that 
Watre, it wolde nevere bere Fruyt. 
Mandeeille, Travels, p. ICH). 
I, forced to go to the office on foot, was almost wt to 
tile skin, and spoiled my silk breeches almost. 
Pepyx, Diary, II. 293. 
In the greenest growth of the Maytime, 
I rode where the woods were wet. 
Swinburne, An Interlude. 
2. Filled with or containing a supply of water : 
as, a wet dock ; a wet meter. See phrases be- 
low. — 3. Consisting of water or other liquid; 
of a watery nature. 
lie your tears w'<;^? Yes, 'faith. I pray, weep not. 
Shah., Lear, iv. 7. 71. 
4. Characterized by rain; rainy; drizzly; show- 
ery: as, wet weather; a wet season (used espe- 
cially with reference to ti'opical or semitropi- 
cal countries, in which the year is divided into 
wet and dry seasons). 
M'et October's torrent flood. Milton, Comus, 1. 930. 
As Ui the Seasons of the Year, I cannot distinguish them 
there [in the ton-id zone] no other way than by Wet and 
Dry. Dampier, Voyages, II. iii. 2. 
5. Drenclied or drunk with liquor; tipsy. [Col- 
loq.] 
When my lost Lover the tall Ship ascends, 
With Music gay, and wet with jovial Friends. 
Prior, Celia to Damon. 
6. In r', .S. j>o//^. ,s7«>(|/, opposeii to prohibition 
of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating 
liquors: as, a irct town. Coinjiare dry, 13.— A 
wet blanket. See blanket— A wet boat, a boat that is 
crank and ships water readily. 
"Why don't yon go forward, sir? . . . she is sure to wet 
us abaft." . . . "Thank you, but . . . (with an heroic at- 
tempt at sea-slang) I like a wet boat." 
C. Jieade, Love me Little, xvii. 
A wet day. S;ime as a rainy day (which see, under rainy). 
VA%i\, saith the rniser, "part with nothing, but keep all 
against a wet day." 
Fuller, General AVoi-thies, xi. {Dames.) 
Wet bargain. Same as Dutch ?>aryn("?i (which see, un- 
lier baryain). - Wet bob, a boy who goes in for boating in 
preference tocricket, football, or other land-sports. lEt<jn 
(.'ollege slaTig.) 
Kverything is enjoyable at Eton in the summer half. 
The wet-bob>i on the river, in all their many trials of 
strength, . . . and the " dry-hobs " in the playing-llelds, 
with all the excitement of their conntleHs matches. 
C A'. I'aacw, Kveiy-day Life in Our I'ublic Schools, p. G2. 
Wet brain, a dropsical condition of the brain and its 
membranes, sometimes obsirved in postmortem examina- 
tions of those who have died of drliriuni tremens. — Wet- 
bulb thermometer. See j^^yth routpter (with cut). - Wet 
cooper. See ci)<)per. Wet dock, a <iock or ba.sin at 
a seaport furTiislied with gates f(jr shutting in tbe tidal 
water, so as to float vessels berthed in it at a projjer 
level for loading and unloading. Wet goods, litiuors: 
6882 
so called in humorous allusion to dry goods. ISlang, U. S,] 
—Wet meter, a gas-meter in which the gas to be mea- 
sured passes through a body of water. The wet meter 
regulates the flow of gas more steadily than the dry me- 
ter, but is more difficult to keep in order.— Wet plate, 
in photog., a plate coated with collodion and sensitized 
with a salt (usually the nitrate) of silver: so called be- 
cause it is necessary, in this process, to perform all the 
operations of making the picture, to and including the 
final fixing of the plate, before the coating of collodion 
dries. For some thirty years, from about 1850, this was 
by far the most important photographic process in use, 
but it is now almost wholly superseded by the various 
rapid dry-plate processes. The phrase is also used attrib- 
utively to note the process or anything connected with 
it. See collodion process, under collodion. -Wet port, a 
seaport as a place of entry for foreign goods, in distinction 
from a drt/ port, or land-port, a place of entry for goods 
transportetl by land. Encyc. Brit., VI. 729.— Wet prep- 
aration, a specimen of natural history immersed in alco- 
hol or other preservative fluid —Wet provisions, a class 
of provisions furnished to a ship, including salt beef and 
pork, vinegar, molasses, pickles, etc. — Wet puddling. 
See puddling, 2. — Wet Quakert, a Quaker who does not 
strictly observe the rules of his society. 
Socinians and Presbyterians, 
liuakers, and Wet-Quakers, or MciTy-ones, 
T. Ward, England's Reformation, I. 213. 
Wet Quakerism. See Quakerism.— Wet steam. See 
steam and open, 13.— Wet way, in chem., the method of 
qualitative and quantitative analysis and assay in which 
the substance to be examined is first dissolved in some li- 
quid and then treated with liquid reagents: the opposite 
of fire-assay, or treatment in the dry way. In the ordi- 
nary analysis of minerals, the substance is first finely pul- 
verized and then dissolved in an acid, after which further 
treatment follows. If insoluble in an acid, it is fused with 
potassium or sodium carbonate, after which treatment 
the fused mass is soluble, either wholly or in part, the sil- 
ica (if the mineral is a silicate) separating out and being 
removed by filtering, after which the process is continued 
the same way as when the substance is soluble without 
the necessity of a preliminary attack by an alkali at a high 
temperature. Ordinary analyses of minerals are made in 
the wet way, assays of ores not infrequently in the di-y way. 
— With a wet finger t, with little effort or trouble; very 
easily or readily : probably from the practice of wetting 
the finger to facilitate matters, as in turning over a leaf of 
a book, or rubbing out writing on a slate. 
Walk you here ; I'll beckon ; you shall see 
I'll fetch her uith a xvet finger. 
Dekker and Webster, Westward Ho, ii. 2. 
wet^ (wet), n. [E. dial, and Sc. also u-evi and 
ivat; < ME. ivctj icete, ivset€,jcatc^ < AS. w^ta, 
m., H-^tCj f. (= Icel._Sw. v^ta = Dan. rsede), 
wet, moisture, < w^t, wet: see wct^, «,] 1. 
Tlxat which makes wet, as water and other li- 
quids; moisture; specifically, rain. 
I se wel how ye swete ; 
Have beer a cloth and wype awey the wete. 
Chaucer, Canon's Yeoman's Tale, 1. 176. 
rpon whose [a river's] weeping margent she was set ; 
Like usury, api>lying xvet to wet. 
Shak.. Lover's Complaint, 1. 40. 
Aft ha'e I run your errands, lady. 
When blawin baith wind and weet. 
Lady Maisry (Child's Ballads, II. 83). 
The gable-end of the cottage was stained with wet. 
T. Hardy, Three Strangers. 
2. The act of wetting; specifically, a wetting 
of the throat with drink; a drink or dram of 
liquor; indulgence iu drinking. [Slang.] 
No bargain could be completed without a wet, and no 
friendship or enmity forgotten without recourse to the 
bottle. A. C. Grant, Bush-Life in Queensland, I. 30. 
3. In U. S. polit. slang, an opponent of prohi- 
bition; one who favors the traffic in liquor. — 
Heavy wet. See heavy^. 
wet^ (wet), r. t. ; pret. and pp. wetted ov wet, ppr. 
wetting. [< JIE. iceten, iv^U-n (pret. wctte, watte, 
pp. wet), < AS. wietan, wetan, gc-weian (= Icel. 
Sw. Vieta = Dan. vsede), wet, moisten, < w^t, 
wet: see wei^, «.] 1. To make wet; moisten, 
drench, or soak with water or other fluid ; dip 
or soak in a liquid. 
Ne wette hir flngres in hir sauce depe. 
Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. T., 1. 129. 
2. To moisten with drink; hence, figuratively, 
to inaugurate or celebrate by a drink or a treat 
of liquor: as, to wet a new hat. [Slang.] 
Down came all the company together, and away! the 
ale-house was immediately filled with clamour, and scor- 
ing one mug to the Marquis of such a place, oil and vin- 
egar to sucii an Earl, three quarts to my new Lord fortoet- 
ting his title. Steele, Spectator, No. 88. 
Then we should have commissions to wet. 
C. Shadivell, Humours of the Navy, ii. 3. 
To wet down paper, in printing, to dip paper in water, or 
sprinkle it in snmll portions, which are laid together and 
left under pressiu'e for a time to allow the moisture to 
spread ecjually through the mass. The dampness of the 
paper fits it for taking the ink readily and evenly in the 
process of printing, and prevents it from sticking to the 
tyj)e. The fltiest printing, however, is done with dry pa- 
]>er, ami ink of a suitable quality for such use.— TO WCt 
one's line. See line-. 
I have not yet wetted my line since we met together. 
1. Walton^ CotnpU'te Angler, p. 84. 
To wet one's whistle. See whuttle. —Wettms-ont 
steep. Same as rot's sleep (which see. under steeji'^). — 
Wetting the block, among English shoemakers, the 
wetter-off 
act of celebrating by a convivial supper, on the first 
Monday In March, the cessation of work by candle-light. 
Ualliwell. 
wet^t, V. and n. A Middle English form of wit^. 
wetandt. A Middle English present participle 
of wit^. 
wetandlyt, adv. A Middle English form of wit- 
tingbj. 
wet-bird (wet'berd), n. The chaffinch, Frin- 
gilla cadehs, whose cry is thought to foretell 
rain. See out under chaffinch. [Local, Eng.] 
wet-broke (wet'brok), n. In paper 'inannj'., the 
moist and imperfectly felted stock or pulp as 
it leaves the wire cylinder, and before it has 
been smoothed out on the forwarding-blanket. 
/;. H. Knight. 
wet-cup (wet'kup), «. A cupping-glass when 
used in the operation of wet-eupj)ing. Home- 
times it is specially constructed with a lance or scarifica- 
tor, which can be used to incise tlie skin after the cup 
has been applied. 
wet-cupping (wet'kup''''ing), v. The applica- 
tion of a cupping-glass simultaneously with in- 
cision of the skin, by means of which a small 
quantity of blood is withdrawn. See cupping, 1. 
wetet. A Middle English form of wef^, wit^. 
wether (weTH'er), ». [E. dial, also icedder; 
< ME. wether, wethir, wedyr, < AS. wither, a 
wether, a castrated ram. = OS. withar, wither 
= D. wedder, weder = OHG. widar, MHG, wider, 
G. widder = Icel. vethr = Sw. vddur = Dan. 
vseder, vsedder, a ram, = Goth, withrusj a lamb; 
akin to L. intHlus, a calf, Skt. imtsa, calf, young, 
lit. 'a yearling,' connected with Skt. vatsara 
and Gr. tro^, a year, L. vetus, aged, old: see 
veal and veteran.'\ A castrated ram. 
And softer than the wolle is of a tvether. 
Chaucer, Miller's Tale, L 03. 
wether-hog (wcTH'er-liog), n. A young wether. 
[Prov. Eng.] 
wethewyndet, «• A Middle English form of 
withwind. 
wetly (wet'li). adv. [< wety + -?j/2.] In a wet 
state or condition ; moistly. 
" Ix)ve/' she says, very sweetly, while, for the last time, 
her blue eyes xcetly dwell on his. 
Rhoda Broughton, Joan, ii. 11. 
wetness (wet'nes), n. The state or condition of 
being wet; also, the capacity for communicat- 
ing moisture or making wet: as, the wetness of 
the atmosphere or of steam. 
The wetness of the working fluid [steaml to which the 
action of the walls of the cylinder gives rise is essentially 
superficial. Encyc. Brit., XXII. 488. 
wet-nurse (wet'ners), «. A woman employed 
to suckle the infant of another. Compare dry- 
n urse. 
wet-nurse (wet'ners), V. t. [< wet-nurse, ?*.] 1, 
To act as a wet-nurse to; suckle. 
Or is he a mythus — ancient word for "humbug'*- 
Such as Livy t«ld about the wolf that wet-nursed 
Romulus and Remus? 0. W. Holmes, Professor, i. 
Hence — 2, To coddle as a wet-nurse does; 
treat with the tenderness shown to an infant. 
The system of iretnursing adopted by the Post Office au- 
thorities in the case of the telegraph service has not been 
one of uniform success. Elect. Hev. (Eng.X XXVII. 205. 
wet-pack (wet'pak), h. A means of reducing 
the temperature in fever by wrapping the body 
in cloths wet with cold water, and covering 
these with a blanket or other dry material. 
wet-press (wet'pres), /(. \\\ pajter-making, the 
second press in which wet hand-made paper is 
compacted and partially dried. E. H. Anight. 
wet-saltert (wet'sal''''ter), «. A salter who pre- 
pares or deals in wet provisions. See wet pro- 
visions, under wef^. Compare dry-salter. 
The Parade . . . smelt as strong about Breakfast Times 
as a Wet Salter's Shop at Midsummer. 
Tom Brmcn, Works (ed. 1708), III. 86. 
wet-shod (wet'shod). a. [< ME. wet-shod, wat- 
shod, wete-shoddc; < wef^ 4- ^s7*(>(/i.] Wet as re- 
gards the shoes; wearing wet shoes. 
There [in the battle] men were wetschoede 
Alle of Brayn & of blode. 
Arthur (ed. Furnivall), \. 469. 
Unless to shame his Court Flatterers wlu) would not 
else be convinc*t, Canute needed not to have gone ir^f-^fAorf 
home. MUton, Hist. Eng., vi. 
So he went over at last, not much aboue wet-shod. 
Bunyan, Pilgrim's lYogress, ii. 
wetter (wet'er), n. One who wets, or practises 
wetting, for some purpose: specifically, in 
}>rinting, a workman who wets down paper. 
See phrase under wet^, v. t. 
wetter-off (wet'er-of), n. In glass-maltng. a 
workman who detaches formed bottles from 
the blowi!ig-iron by applying a moistened tool 
to tlie neck. 
