mouiller

French

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 , 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 !

Conjugation

Conjugation of mouiller (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	mouiller
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	mouillant /mu.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		mouillé /mu.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	mouille /muj/	mouilles /muj/	mouille /muj/	mouillons /mu.jɔ̃/	mouillez /mu.je/	mouillent /muj/
	imperfect	mouillais /mu.jɛ/	mouillais /mu.jɛ/	mouillait /mu.jɛ/	mouillions /muj.jɔ̃/	mouilliez /muj.je/	mouillaient /mu.jɛ/
	past historic2	mouillai /mu.je/	mouillas /mu.ja/	mouilla /mu.ja/	mouillâmes /mu.jam/	mouillâtes /mu.jat/	mouillèrent /mu.jɛʁ/
	future	mouillerai /muj.ʁe/	mouilleras /muj.ʁa/	mouillera /muj.ʁa/	mouillerons /muj.ʁɔ̃/	mouillerez /muj.ʁe/	mouilleront /muj.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	mouillerais /muj.ʁɛ/	mouillerais /muj.ʁɛ/	mouillerait /muj.ʁɛ/	mouillerions /mu.jə.ʁjɔ̃/	mouilleriez /mu.jə.ʁje/	mouilleraient /muj.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	mouille /muj/	mouilles /muj/	mouille /muj/	mouillions /muj.jɔ̃/	mouilliez /muj.je/	mouillent /muj/
	imperfect2	mouillasse /mu.jas/	mouillasses /mu.jas/	mouillât /mu.ja/	mouillassions /mu.ja.sjɔ̃/	mouillassiez /mu.ja.sje/	mouillassent /mu.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	mouille /muj/	—	mouillons /mu.jɔ̃/	mouillez /mu.je/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• amouillante
• mouille-bouche
• mouille-étiquettes
• amouiller
• mouillade
• mouillage
• mouillasser

• mouillement
• mouiller le maillot, mouiller la chemise
• mouillère
• mouillet
• mouillette
• mouilleur
• mouilleux

• mouilloir
• mouillure
• pattemouille
• poule mouillée
• remouiller
• remouillure

Related terms

• mollir
• mou

Further reading

• “mouiller”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.