wringing wet

wringing wet

1. So wet that water can be wrung out; very wet.

   Synonyms: dripping wet, soaking wet, sopping wet.

   • 1566, William Adlington (translator), The Golden Ass by Apuleius, London: Henry Wykes, Chapter 5,

     […] they stridde ouer me, and slapped their buttockes vpon my face, and all bepissed me, till I was wringing wet:

   • 1621, John Ashmore (translator), Certain Selected Odes of Horace, Englished, Ad Pirrham, Book 1, Ode 5, p. ,

     I hung to th’ Sea god, after strange beseeches,

     My doublet wringing wet, and cod-piec’t breeches.

   • 1785, John Rickman, Journal of Captain Cook’s Last Voyage, to the Pacific Ocean, London: E. Newbery, Part 2, p. 319,

     The weather being fine and clear, we seized this opportunity to search for the leak, and, knowing it to be forwards, we moved the sails from the fore sail-room, and found them wringing wet;

   • 1937, George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, London: Victor Gollancz, Part 1, Chapter 4, pp. 62-63,

     It is almost impossible to sleep on the floor, because the damp soaks up from below. I was shown mattresses which were still wringing wet at eleven in the morning.