mouiller

Etymology

From Old French moillier, from a hypothetical Vulgar Latin *molliāre (“to soften by soaking”) (cf. also molliō), itself from Latin mollia (panis), from a substantivation of the adjective mollis (“soft”), or from molliō, mollīre, and influenced by mollia. Cognate with Catalan mullar, Occitan molhar, Portuguese molhar, Romanian muia, Spanish mojar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mu.je/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Homophones: mouillai, mouillé, mouillée, mouillées, mouillés, mouillez
• Hyphenation: mou‧iller

Verb

mouiller

1. (transitive) to make wet, get wet, dampen, moisten
2. (transitive, cooking) to water (down)
3. (transitive, nautical) to cast, drop (anchor)
4. (transitive, linguistics) to palatalize
5. (intransitive, nautical) to anchor, lie at anchor
   • 1955, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques, 1993 ed., Plon, →ISBN Invalid ISBN, chap. IX, p. 90

     Le 10 novembre, Villegaignon mouille dans la baie de Guanabara, où Français et Portugais se disputaient depuis plusieurs années les faveurs des indigènes.

     — On November 10th, Villegaignon anchored in the bay of Guanabara, where for several years the French and the Portuguese had been vying with each other in wooing the natives. — 1973, John & Doreen Weightman (trans.), Tristes Tropiques, 2011 ed., Penguin Books, →ISBN

6. (intransitive, slang) to be so frightened as to piss oneself
7. (intransitive, slang, sex) to be wet
8. (intransitive, Louisiana) to rain
9. (reflexive, informal) to stick one's neck out

   Tu ne te mouilles pas trop, à ce que je vois !

Further reading

• “mouiller” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).