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😋 To increase interest 🔪 To sharpen
to whet

to whet

1 8.8
To make a blade or tool sharper by rubbing it on a stone
  • verb
  • /wɛt/
translation icon : afilar
  • They all looked at me warily, except for the cook, who draped a towel over her shoulder and began to whet a knife of the sort used to chop the heads off fish.
  • whet a knife

Examples

  • DJ whets a scalpel against the leg of his jumpsuit, an unconscious gesture.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Why do you whet your knife so earnestly?

    The Merchant of Venice (2004)

  • " The ear may be the best of poets," he argued, "but its cut and concision are whetted by the mind, its edge honed by hand."

    Academic text (2008)

  • Right then, the desert flashed with a spark as sharp as a knife just whetted on a grindstone, and the end of it, like the eye of a flame, struck me in the stomach.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • He needs to whet his knife before starting the cooking process.

  • Before the camping trip, she decided to whet her axe on the whetstone.

  • The chef whet his favorite knife every morning to ensure it was sharp.

Synonyms

to sharpen
vsto whet
35 2.1

To make the edge or tip of something thin and able to cut, like a knife

focuses on rubbing the edge using a stone rather than any method
to strap
vsto whet
  • UK
1 7.4

To sharpen a razor by rubbing it on a leather band

uses a sharpening stone rather than a leather strip to rub the blade
to strop
vsto whet
8.6

To rub a blade on leather to make its edge smooth and sharp

uses a sharpening stone rather than a leather strip when rubbing a blade

How Sharp

strop
2 9.8
to whet
1 8.8
to sharpen
35 2.1

Surface Forms

whet infinitive
whetting present participle
whets third person singular
whet past
whet past participle

Etymology

The word whet comes from an old English word meaning 'make sharp' and appears in whetstone, the stone used to sharpen knives. So, to whet a blade is to make its edge sharp.