as in sharpened
having an edge thin enough to cut or pierce something
I'll need a well-whetted axe to split the wood
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Recent Examples of whetted
Literary Hub, 2 Jan. 2026
Exposure to the outside world, through her father's work, must have whetted MacLeod's appetite for travel, Crichton says.
—Lauren Frayer, NPR, 14 Sep. 2025
Verb
The sheer audacity of the recent Louvre heist has whetted us readers’ appetites for heist stories—space heists, all the better!
—Literary Hub, 2 Jan. 2026
Exposure to the outside world, through her father's work, must have whetted MacLeod's appetite for travel, Crichton says.
—Lauren Frayer, NPR, 14 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for whetted
Verb
-
The phages developed mutations that sharpened their ability to latch onto and infect bacterial cells.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
13 Jan. 2026
-
That agenda was sharpened by voters’ decisive rejection of Proposition Q in November — a result Watson has framed as both a mandate and a warning.—
Austin American Statesman,
Austin American Statesman,
12 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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The numbers mark a sharp reversal from a spike in violence during the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic.—
Shomik Mukherjee,
Mercury News,
8 Jan. 2026
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The blazer of Middleton’s look included sharp shoulders with sinuous lapels and angular pockets at the waist.—
Julia Teti,
Footwear News,
8 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Whetted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/whetted. Accessed 17 Jan. 2026.
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