▪ I. ˈwetter
[f. wet v.]
1. One who wets; spec. one who damps paper to be used in printing.
| 1737 Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. (ed. 33) ii. 93 Wetters of paper for [rolling-press]. 1760 Court & City Reg. 130, 7 Layers of Paper, and 2 Wetters of ditto. 1888 Jacobi Printers' Vocab., Wetter, the workman whose duty it is to ‘wet down’ paper preparatory to printing. |
b. wetter-off, in glass-making, a workman who detaches glass by wetting it. (Cf. wet v. 13.)
| 1883 H. J. Powell Glass-making 86 If the bottle be large it is handed, whilst still attached to the blowing-iron, to the ‘wetter off’, who detaches it by applying a moistened tool to the neck. 1888 Daily News 14 Feb. 6/7 The glass is never attached to any part of the machine, and so the ‘wetter-off’ is dispensed with. |
2. colloq. A wetting, soaking.
| 1885 Sladen Poetry of Exiles (ed. 2) I. 28 Unheedful of the dew..Until a shiver told him that he'd ‘had a thorough wetter’. |
▪ II. wetter
dial. form of water; var. witter n.2