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
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Handling has been sharpened by rigidly mounting the rear subframe and reworking the Bilstein dampers.—
Basem Wasef,
Robb Report,
25 Feb. 2026
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One end had been sharpened to a vicious point; the other was a forked hammer claw.—
Josh Ireland,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Use clean, sharp pruners to cut a smooth edge right above a living bud, lateral branch, or along the trunk where there is a ragged break.—
Mary Marlowe Leverette,
Southern Living,
22 Feb. 2026
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Coupled with a sharp slowdown in the labor market, a massive voter revolt is gaining momentum heading into this year’s midterm elections.—
Jason Ma,
Fortune,
22 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Whetted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/whetted. Accessed 27 Feb. 2026.
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