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Glite Dictionary
as a wet hen

as a wet hen

1 9.9
Very unhappy and angry about something
  • idiom
  • Archaic
translation icon : muy enojado
  • When her favorite show got canceled, Lisa felt mad as a wet hen and expressed her frustration online.
  • mad as a wet hen

Examples

  • "Why are you all so slow?" This made Brother mad as a wet hen.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • After losing the game, Tom was mad as a wet hen because he couldn't believe they had lost.

  • She was mad as a wet hen when she found out her friends had planned a surprise party without her.

Synonyms

unhappy
vsas a wet hen
463 1.0

Feeling sad or not pleased about something

adds stronger annoyance or dejection to that simple sadness
bummed
vsas a wet hen
  • Informal
16 7.5

Feeling sad or disappointed about something

is similar but expresses stronger, more emphatic unhappiness
upset
vsas a wet hen
9 2.5

Being in a state of disorder or confusion

focuses more narrowly on feeling very unhappy or dejected
dejected
vsas a wet hen
5 4.5

Feeling very sad and not hopeful

emphasises the same low mood but includes annoyance too
mad as a wet hen
vsas a wet hen
  • Informal
1 9.8

Very angry or upset

includes anger but also stresses sorrow and dejection sometimes
as miserable as a wet hen
vsas a wet hen
  • Informal
9.9

Very sad and upset, often after something bad happens

has identical meaning but uses a slightly different phrasing
sick as a parrot
vsas a wet hen
  • UK
9.3

Very disappointed and upset because things did not turn out well

is broader, covering unhappy feelings beyond just disappointment
angry as a wet hen
vsas a wet hen
  • UK
9.9

Feeling very angry and upset

leans more toward unhappy or dejected feelings than pure anger
wild as a wet hen
vsas a wet hen
  • Informal
9.4

Feeling very angry and upset

is more about low mood and quiet annoyance rather than agitation

Antonyms

happy as a lark
  • Informal
1 5.5

Feeling very pleased and excited

as bright as the vernal sun
  • Literature
8.9

Very cheerful and bright like the spring sun

How Annoyed

furious
238 3.0
as a wet hen
  • Archaic
1 9.9
annoyed
77 1.0
irritated
44 3.1
calm
735 1.0

Surface Forms

as a wet hen positive

Morphology

as + a + wet + hen

The expression is a simile comparing a person to a 'wet hen' — if learners know 'wet' and 'hen' they can imagine a bedraggled, unhappy bird and infer the speaker means someone is miserable or annoyed. Because the meaning relies on an imagistic/cultural comparison rather than an arbitrary idiom, it is interpretable from the parts but may lack precise nuance without exposure.

Etymology

The idiom as a wet hen comes from the image of a hen caught in the rain, with soggy feathers and a miserable, angry look. So, saying someone is as a wet hen means they are 'very unhappy' or 'annoyed'.