drenching

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
drenching
    n 1: the act of making something completely wet; "he gave it a
         good drenching" [syn: {drenching}, {soaking}, {souse},
         {sousing}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Drench \Drench\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Drenched}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Drenching}.] [AS. drencan to give to drink, to drench, the
   causal of drincan to drink; akin to D. drenken, Sw.
   dr[aum]nka, G. tr[aum]nken. See {Drink}.]
   1. To cause to drink; especially, to dose by force; to put a
      potion down the throat of, as of a horse; hence. to purge
      violently by physic.
      [1913 Webster]

            As "to fell," is "to make to fall," and "to lay," to
            make to lie." so "to drench," is "to make to drink."
                                                  --Trench.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To steep in moisture; to wet thoroughly; to soak; to
      saturate with water or other liquid; to immerse.
      [1913 Webster]

            Now dam the ditches and the floods restrain;
            Their moisture has already drenched the plain.
                                                  --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
32 Moby Thesaurus words for "drenching":
      brewing, dampening, drench, ducking, dunking, humectant,
      imbruement, imbuement, impregnation, infiltration, infusion,
      injection, irrigational, irriguous, leaching, lixiviation,
      maceration, moistening, percolation, permeation, pulping,
      saturation, seething, soak, soakage, soaking, sopping, souse,
      sousing, steeping, watering, wetting

    

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