wet

wet, damp, dank, moist, humid are comparable when they mean covered or more or less soaked with liquid.

Wet may be used with no further implications or it may specifically imply saturation

{

wet clothes

}

{

the rain lies in puddles on the wet ground

}

Often, however, the term refers to a surface covered with liquid

{

wet pavements

}

{

wet hands

}

{

cheeks wet with tears

}

But wet often means merely not dry, or not yet dry, especially when used in reference to something (as paint, ink, or glue)

which has been applied to or used on a surface.

Damp differs from wet chiefly in implying a slight or moderate absorption or covering and often in connoting the presence of unpleasant or disagreeable wetness

{

damp shoes

}

{

the sheets on the bed are damp

}

{

a damp house

}

However damp usually implies less wetness than is commonly suggested by the adjective wet

{

sheets should be damp when they are ironed

}

Dank unequivocally applies to what is disagreeably, penetratingly or, from the point of view of health or comfort, dangerously, wet

{

a cold dank mist

}

{

dank forests

}

{

a dank cellar

}

Moist often suggests little more than the absence of dryness or a not unpleasant dampness (moist eyes)

{

moist air

}

{

moist heat

}

Humid is chiefly used to imply an oppressive degree of moisture in warm air

{

the humid atmosphere of early August

}

{

the humid prairie heat, so nourishing to wheat and corn, so exhausting to human beings— Cather

}

{

a firefly ... on a humid summer's night— Furnas

}

Analogous words: soaked, saturated, drenched, waterlogged (see SOAK vb)

Antonyms: dry