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Glite Dictionary
to moisten

to moisten

7 3.0
To make something a little wet
  • verb
  • /ˈmɔɪsən/
translation icon : humedecer
  • You can compact it a little bit and then we're going to sow our seeds, moisten it up and get going with the rest of the process.
  • moistened swabs
  • moistened quires
  • sterile moistened

and if we moistened our finger and held it above our heads,

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Examples

  • A gentle rain the night before has softened and moistened the ground.

    Academic text (2006)

  • So I can kind of get in here just like this and just squeeze out just enough water to moisten the root balls, but not enough water to pool at the bottom.

  • But the first thing I want to do is just moisten all the soil because if it's dry, it's been dry for a while.

  • And you might be thinking to yourself, well, yeah, you pre moisten it, let's just move on.

  • We're going to pre moisten our seed starting mix, which I have right here.

  • And finally, we're just going to add some lime juice to kind of moisten everything and then we'll just mix it all up.

  • So just re moisten your brush if you need to, to kind of further blend this out.

  • We have to use the eye drops to keep her eyes moistened around the clock.

    The Black Hole (2015)

  • I'm just going to gently moisten the rock wool on the top where the seeds are going to be.

  • The gardener decided to moisten the soil before planting the seeds to help them grow.

Synonyms

to wet
vsto moisten
26 1.0

To make something wet by covering it with liquid

describes only slight dampness rather than heavy soaking
to moisturize
vsto moisten
  • US
11 3.4

To put cream, oil, or water on skin to stop it getting dry

means slight wetting without the care or prevention sense
to dampen
vsto moisten
4 3.4

Make something slightly wet

has identical meaning but is an alternate expression

Antonyms

to dry out
11 2.4

To become dry or make something no longer wet

How Wet

to soak
141 1.0
to wet
26 1.0
to moisten
7 3.0

Surface Forms

moisten infinitive
moistened past
moistened past participle
moistening present participle
moistens third person singular

Morphology

moisten = moist (transparent) = moist + en

The verb is a regular verb-forming derivation from the adjective 'moist' with predictable meaning 'make slightly wet'.

Etymology

Moisten comes from the adjective moist, which means 'slightly wet', plus the verb ending -en meaning 'make', so moisten simply means 'make something slightly wet'.