vet

• IPA^(key): /vɛt/
• Rhymes: -ɛt

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Clipping of veterinarian.

vet (plural vets)

1. (colloquial) A veterinarian or veterinary surgeon.
   • 2011 December 14, Steven Morris, “Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave”, in Guardian‎^[1]:

     Colin Cameron, a vet who examined the dead animal, said there was "no doubt the kitten would have suffered unnecessarily" before dying.

• vet tech

Clipping of veteran.

vet (plural vets)

1. (colloquial, US) A veteran (a former soldier or other member of armed forces).
   • 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 73:

     “A former soldier, sir. A vet. Theyʼre all vets, a little shellshocked.”

Although veteran can be used in many contexts such as sports or business to describe someone with many years of experience, vet is usually used only for former military personnel.

Possibly by analogy from Etymology 1, in the sense of "verifying the soundness [of an animal]"

vet (third-person singular simple present vets, present participle vetting, simple past and past participle vetted)

1. To thoroughly check or investigate particularly with regard to providing formal approval.

   The FBI vets all nominees to the Federal bench.

   • 1980 March 10, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “The Economy Drive”, in Yes, Minister, season 1, episode 3, spoken by Jim Hacker and Humphrey Appleby (Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne):

     Sir Humphrey Appleby: Nevertheless we do not admit it (the existence of MI6). Not everyone round this table has been vetted (pun). / Jim Hacker: I thought that's something you do to cats (laugh track). / Sir Humphrey Appleby: Yes indeed, but not ferrets, Minister (laugh track).

   • 2000 September, “Corrupt and Farcical Elections”, in Racial Discrimination in Tibet‎^[2], Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, →OCLC, page 116:

     41 year-old Thupten from Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture confirmed this threat of punishment. “The people in my area were very discontent when an election was announced. We knew that the candidates selected had already been carefully vetted by higher Chinese officials, and that our ‘voting’ was mere lip-service to Chinese claims of democracy, but we did it anyway.

   • 2023, “How a Bill Becomes a Law”, in mnnurses.org‎^[3]:

     House and Senate Committees are made up of elected legislators who vet the bill and hear from stakeholders and members of the public.

• evaluate

• vetter

OED2

• red vet pet

• ETV, EVT, TeV, VTE, Vte

• vetë, vehte

vet

1. alternative form of vetë

i vet

1. his, her or their own

   Aleksandri është me Albanin dhe qenin e vet.

   Aleksandër is with Alban and his (own) dog.

Used in contexts where i tij (“his”), i saj (“her”) or i tyre (“their”) would be ambiguous. In the example sentence above, if "e vet" were replaced with "e tij", it would more likely refer to Alban's dog. The use of "vet" removes this ambiguity.

vet

1. coconut

• A. Schapper, The Papuan Languages of Timor, Alor and Pantar: Volume 1

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈbɛt]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈvət]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈvet]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

Borrowed from Latin vetō.

• veto

vet m (plural vets)

1. veto

Inherited from Latin videte, second-person plural present imperative of videō (“to see”). Compare French voici, voilà.

vet

1. there is

   vet aquí

   here's

• heus
• (Algherese) mi-lo, mi-la, mi-los, mi-les

• “vet”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “vet”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “vet” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “vet” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• IPA^(key): [ˈvɛt]

vet

1. genitive plural of veto

From Middle Dutch vet, from Old Dutch fētit, fet, from Proto-West Germanic *faitid, originally a past participle.

• IPA^(key): /vɛt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: vet
• Rhymes: -ɛt

vet (comparative vetter, superlative vetst)

1. fat

   Synonym: dik

2. greasy

   Synonym: vettig

3. emphatical, (in print) bold

   Synonyms: vetjes, dikgedrukt

4. (informal) cool

   Synonyms: dik, lauw, cool

   Wow, vet! ― Wow, cool!

Declension of vet
uninflected	vet
inflected	vette
comparative	vetter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		vet	vetter	het vetst het vetste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	vette	vettere	vetste
	n. sing.	vet	vetter	vetste
	plural	vette	vettere	vetste
definite		vette	vettere	vetste
partitive		vets	vetters	—

• Afrikaans: vet
• Berbice Creole Dutch: fete
• Negerhollands: vet, fet
• → Papiamentu: vèt

vet n (plural vetten)

1. fat
2. grease

• Berbice Creole Dutch: fete

vet

1. (colloquial) very

   Hij is vet dik. ― He's very fat.

• evt.

Uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Finno-Ugric *wettä- (“to throw, fling, toss”). ^[1][2] Compare Erzya видемс (videms, “to sow”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈvɛt]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt

vet

1. (transitive) to throw, cast
2. (ambitransitive) to sow

   ki mint vet, úgy arat ― reap what one sows (literally, “as one sows, so one reaps”)

3. (chiefly construed as magára vet) synonym of okol (“to blame”)

   Ha nem fogadod meg a tanácsom, magadra vess. ― If you don’t take my advice, you have only yourself to blame.

Note that vettem, vettél, vett etc. are not forms of this verb but those of vesz (“to take, buy”).

(With verbal prefixes):

• vet in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

Borrowed from Russian ведь (vedʹ).

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈʋet/, [ˈʋe̞d]
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈʋet/, [ˈʋe̞d̥]
• Rhymes: -et
• Hyphenation: vet

vet

1. after all
   • 1936, N. A. Iljin and V. I. Junus, Bukvari iƶoroin șkouluja vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 56:

     Jo vet ono lumi maas.

     There's already snow on the ground, after all.

   • 1936, D. I. Efimov, Lukukirja: Inkeroisia alkușkouluja vart (ensimäine osa), Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 7:

     Miä vet saan lypsää, - halliaal meeleel vastais Ksenja.

     I can milk, after all - Ksenja answered in a grieving mood.

• Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 650

From Old Dutch fētit, fet, from Proto-West Germanic *faitid, originally a past participle.

vet

1. fat, large (of humans or animals)
2. (rich in) fat
3. fatty, greasy
4. fertile, rich in nutrients (of land)

• Dutch: vet
  • Afrikaans: vet
  • Berbice Creole Dutch: fete
  • Negerhollands: vet, fet
  • → Papiamentu: vèt
• Limburgish: vèt

vet n

1. fat
2. grease

• Dutch: vet
• Limburgish: vèt

• “vet (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “vet (II)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “vet (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “vet (II)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page II

From Proto-Torres-Banks *βati, from Proto-North-Central Vanuatu *βati, from Proto-Oceanic *pati, from *pat, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *əpat, from Proto-Austronesian *Səpat.

• IPA^(key): /βɛt/

vet

1. four

• François, Alexandre. 2025. Online Mwotlap–English–French cultural dictionary. Electronic files. Paris: CNRS. (Pdf version) – entry vet_1.

From Proto-Oceanic *patu, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *batu, from Proto-Austronesian *batu.

• IPA^(key): /βɛt/

vet (determinate nevet)

1. stone, rock
2. money; vatu

• François, Alexandre. 2025. Online Mwotlap–English–French cultural dictionary. Electronic files. Paris: CNRS. (Pdf version) – entry vet_2.

• veit

vet

1. present tense of vite

vet

1. imperative of veta

vēt

1. first-person present indicative of vita
2. third-person present indicative of vita

vet

1. present of veta; know, knows

   Jag vet inte.

   I do not know.

2. imperative of veta

   Vet hut!

   Behave yourself!

   (literally, “Know decency!”)

• tve-

• IPA^(key): /βɛt/

From Proto-Torres-Banks *βatu, from Proto-Oceanic *patu, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *batu, from Proto-Austronesian *batu.^[1]

vet

1. stone, rock (of any size)

From Proto-Torres-Banks *βatu, from Proto-Oceanic *patuʀ, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *batuʀ.^[1]

vet

1. to weave or plait

• vetvet