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Moist vs Sodden - What's the difference?

moist | sodden | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between moist and sodden

is that moist is slightly wet; characterised by the presence of moisture, not dry; damp while sodden is soaked or drenched with liquid; soggy, saturated.

As a verb sodden is

to drench, soak or saturate.

moist

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Slightly wet; characterised by the presence of moisture, not dry; damp.
  • * 1937 , "Modernist Miracle", Time , 1 Nov 1937:
  • Joseph Smith, a diffident, conscientious young man with moist hands and an awkward, absent-minded manner, was head gardener at Wotton Vanborough.
  • * 2011 , Dominic Streatfeild, The Guardian , 7 Jan 2011:
  • "The other car didn't explode," continues Shujaa. "The explosives were a bit moist . They had been stored in a place that was too humid."
  • Of eyes: tearful, wet with tears.
  • * 1974 , "Mitchell and Stans: Not Guilty", Time , 6 Dec 1974:
  • Eyes moist , he hugged one of his attorneys and later said: "I feel like I've been reborn."
  • Of weather, climate etc.: rainy, damp.
  • * 2008 , Graham Harvey, The Guardian , 8 Sep 2008:
  • With its mild, moist climate, Britain is uniquely placed to grow good grass.
  • *:
  • Pituita'', or phlegm, is a cold and moist humour, begotten of the colder parts of the ''chylus  […].
  • (obsolete) Watery, liquid, fluid.
  • * 1658 , Sir Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia :
  • Some being of the opinion of Thales, that water was the originall of all things, thought it most equall to submit unto the principle of putrefaction, and conclude in a moist relentment.
  • (medicine) Characterised by the presence of pus, mucus etc.
  • (colloquial) Sexually lubricated (of the vagina); sexually aroused, turned on (of a woman).
  • * 2008 , Marcia King-Gamble, Meet Phoenix , p. 168:
  • He slid a finger in me, checking to make sure I was moist and ready for him.

    Synonyms

    * dank * damp *

    Anagrams

    *

    sodden

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Soaked or drenched with liquid; soggy, saturated.
  • * 1810 , , Volume XII, 4th Edition, page 702,
  • It is found, indeed, that meat, roa?ted by a fire of peat or turf, is more ?odden than when coal is employed for that purpo?e.
  • * 1895 February, James Rodway, Nature's Triumph'', '' , page 460,
  • The outfalls are choked, the dams are perforated by crabs or broken down by floods, and soon the ground becomes more and more sodden .
  • * 2014, (Paul Salopek), Blessed. Cursed. Claimed. , National Geographic (December 2014)[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text]
  • A miraculous desert rain. We slog, dripping, into As Safi, Jordan. We drive the sodden mules through wet streets. To the town’s only landmark. To the “Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth.”
  • (figuratively) Drunk; stupid as a result of drunkenness.
  • * 1857 , , 1899, Reprint Edition, page 60,
  • With this profession of faith, the doctor, who was an old jail-bird, and was more sodden than usual, and had the additional and unusual stimulus of money in his pocket, returned to his associate and chum in hoarseness, puffiness, redfacedness, all-fours, tobacco, dirt, and brandy.
  • * 2010 , , The Cameron Delusion , page 79,
  • I would have done too, but alcohol makes me so ill that I couldn't (I mention this to make it clear that I don't claim any moral superiority over my more sodden colleagues).

    Derived terms

    * soddenly * soddenness

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To drench, soak or saturate.
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • But as I lay asleep the top had been pressed off the box, and the tinder got loose in my pocket; and though I picked the tinder out easily enough, and got it in the box again, yet the salt damps of the place had soddened it in the night, and spark by spark fell idle from the flint.
  • To become soaked.