Originally Posted by Oxford English Dictionary

1. Consisting of moisture, liquid. Chiefly as a pleonastic rhetorical epithet of water or tears.
In OE. used with ref. to mediaeval physiology = MOIST 1d, HUMID b.

2. a. Of weather, a period of time, a locality: Rainy.

b. Of the air, wind, etc.: Holding or carrying moisture in the form of vapour.

c. Of a star: Bringing rain.

d. transf. and fig. (Cf. RAINY 2b.)

e. Comb. (adj. + n. used as an attrib. phr.).

f. absol. = wet season. Freq. with def. article and also with capital initial. colloq. (chiefly Austral.).

3. a. Of land or soil: Holding water, saturated with water, heavy.

b. Of a crop: Grown in a moist or watery soil.

4. Made damp or moist by exposure to the elements or by falling in water; sprinkled, covered, or permeated with rain, dew, etc. Const. with, {dag}of. a. of things, esp. clothing.

b. of persons (together with their clothes) or a part of the body. Also of animals.

c. with prefixed intensive pple., as wringing (see WRINGING ppl. a.), dripping, {dag}dropping wet. wet through, to the skin: having one's clothes completely saturated (cf. WET v. 4c).

d. absol. the wet = one's wet clothes.

e. Applied to a removable liner for the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine that has cooling water flowing between it and the cylinder wall.

5. a. Suffused with tears; moist with weeping or with being wept upon. Const. with, {dag}of.

b. Suffused or covered with blood; dripping or oozing with blood. (Only of wounds, or with explicit mention of blood.)

c. Moist or damp with perspiration.

d. to get wet: to lose one's temper, become angry. Austral. slang (?Obs.).

e. to get (someone) wet: to gain the upper hand over; to have at one's mercy. N.Z. slang.

f. Of those activities of intellignece organizations, esp. of the K.G.B., that involve assassination. slang.

6. a. Made moist or damp by dipping in, or sprinkling or smearing with, water or other liquid.
Freq. of new-printed matter (newspapers or books), esp. in the phr. wet from the press.

{dag}b. (a) with a wet finger: easily, with little effort. Also (b) readily, without hesitation; (c) slightly, lightly. Obs.
Perh. from the practice of wetting the first or second finger on one's tongue in order to facilitate turning over the leaves of a book or to rub out writing on a slate. Cf. quots. 1721 and 1839 in 6.

c. in other proverbial expressions.
to cover oneself with a wet sack: see SACK n.1 3.

d. to come with a wet sail: to make swift progress to victory, like a ship with sails wetted in order to keep close to the wind.

7. Of timber: Full of sap, unseasoned.

8. Of paint, varnish, ink: Not yet dry, sticky, liable to smudge.

9. Fortif. Of a ditch: Containing water.
For the sense cf. WET DOCK.

10. Of fish: a. Cured with salt or brine. b. Fresh, not dried.

11. Of confections: Preserved in syrup; of a syrupy nature. Of surgical or natural-history specimens: Bottled in spirits.

12. Of measure: Used for liquid articles. ?Obs.

13. Med. a. Designating certain diseases which are characterized by moist secretions.

b. wet cup, cupping: see CUPPING vbl. n. 1.

c. Designating various modes of hydropathic treatment, as in wet bandage, compress, pack, packing, sheet.

14. colloq. a. Primed with liquor; more or less intoxicated. (Cf. WET v. 7b.)

b. Addicted to drink.

c. transf.

15. colloq. a. Of a Quaker: Not very strict in the observances of his sect. (See also 14b.)

b. Inept, ineffectual, effete; also as quasi-adv. and in comb. wet fish, a wet individual, a ‘drip’. Also spec. in Politics (see quots. 1981 and 1983). Cf. WET n.1 6.

c. all wet: mistaken, completely wrong. orig. and chiefly U.S.

d. wet behind the ears: see EAR n.1 1c.

16. a. Consisting of alcoholic liquor.

b. Concerned with the sale and consumption of alcoholic liquor.

c. orig. and chiefly U.S. Permitting the sale of alcoholic liquor: accepting or adhering to this as a principle; opposed to the prohibition of the liquor traffic. Freq. in recent use. Hence as quasi-adv. in phr. to go or vote wet. Cf. DRY a. 11a.

d. absol. or quasi-n. (from prec. sense).

17. a. Designating various technical processes or operations.

b. Designating chemical tests and analysis involving the use of solvents or other liquids; = HUMID a. c; so wet-chemical adj. Cf. WAY n.1 14c.

18. Naut. Of a vessel: Liable to ship water over the bows or gunwale.

19. Of natural gas: containing significant amounts of the vapour of higher hydrocarbons.

20. In combination with pa. pples.: a. predicative, as wet-crushed, -picked, -plucked, salted, situated, spun, woaded.

b. parasynthetic, as wet-bottomed, -eyed, -feeted, -footed, -lipped, mouthed.