What Does The Phrase Wet Your Whistle Mean

March 30, 2021 Post a Comment

I like that car it really wets my whistle. The noun whistle has long been used as a jocular term for the mouth or throat especially in regard to speaking or singing.

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On a final note wet your whistle doesnt mean the same thing as whet your whistle But thats fodder for another post another time.

What does the phrase wet your whistle mean. Basically it means to do something you enjoy. Given that to wet your whistle means to drink this makes sense. Indeed there is a reference to it in Chaucer.

Not as you will find at some postings from the existence of whistles molded onto the rims of beer mugs that used to be used to order more beer. The noun whistle has long been used as a jocular term for the mouth or throat especially in regard to speaking or singing. To wet your whistle meaning to take a drink dates back to at least 1386 but it never referred to an actual whistle.

You may see it put about that wet your whistle derives from the practice of using a whistle in the taverns of Olde Englande to summon the landlord with more drinks. It probably derives from the little wooden whistle which was made from a tree branch in early spring when the sap began to run. Currently voted the best answer.

The phrase to wet ones whistle meaning to take a drink is found as early as the late 14th century in The Reeves Tale by the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer circa 1340-1400. The reverse errorusing whet in place of wet is rare but it is surprisingly common in the idiom wet ones whistle which means to take a drink. Rather it is a reference to the fact that is is hard to whistle with a dry mouth hence the need for something to.

The term has been around since the fourteenth century. Im going to drink a beer to wet my whistle. As if he had hoarseness or had a cold.

To have an alcoholic drink 2. Here whistle is a metaphor for the mouth itself and thus wet is the appropriate word. Whistle is an old slang word for mouth or throat.

If you wet your whistle you have a drink especially an alcoholic drink. It may have supplanted the phrase clear as. To have an alcoholic drink.

Theres a mouth-watering menu and an excellent selection of beers to wet your whistle. When your drinking with your college buddies while wearing your swim trunks and you decide that its just easier to pee in your trunks than going to the bathroom. The word whistle has been used to describe the throat or mouth for hundreds of years with the complete phrase appearing in literature at least as far back as the late 14th century.

To have a drink. This sort of error is common. In the early-1800s this expression had a different meaning.

So to wet the whistle was to quench your thirst or wet your mouth and throat. It described something that was totally finished or thoroughly completed. To bedde he goth and with hym goth his wyf.

Whet your appetite is a phrase meaning to sharpen ones desire for food whereas wet your whistle refers to having a drink. This is complete tosh. An appetite on the other hand cannot be made physically wet making whet the correct term.

Wet your whistle meaning. Whistle here is a metonym for mouth so the phrase literally means wet ones mouth and its easy to see how this came to mean what it does. Phrase VERB inflects To wet your whistle means to have a drink.

The original saying was slick as a whistle. There is documentation that this was in use during the 1300s. To wet your whistle was to have something to drink.

By DP2 September 01 2006. So wet your whistle simply means to wet your throat. Technically it means you do something to moisturize your mouth like drink something.

The wet sap was slick enough for the bark to be removed in preparation for cutting the required notches and rings to create the whistle. Either way the meaning involves drinking or taking a drink. Wet your whistle comes from the use of whistle to refer to the mouth or throat.

The first to succeed in doing so wins a prize. Whistle here means throat or voice and the phrase just means take a drink. Whistle used to be a slang word for throat.

Maybe one wet ones whistle before you whistled hard to whistle with dry lips. The phrase first appears toward the end of the 14th century in Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales. Wet ones whistle to.

It is very difficult to whistle with dry lips. As he were on the quakke or on the pose. To wet your whistle meaning to take a drink dates back to at least 1386 but it never referred to an actual whistle.

An old childrens party game involves eating some dry crackers or bread and attempting to whistle.

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