Word of the Day for Saturday, August 22, 2009

vet \VET\, transitive verb:

1. To provide veterinary care for (an animal).
2. To provide (a person) with medical care.
3. To examine carefully; to subject to thorough appraisal; to evaluate.
4. To practice as a veterinarian.

She was the right age (in her fifties), and her personal background had been vetted during the Senate confirmation hearings.
-- Eleanor Clift and Tom Brazaitis, Madam President

The "Stasi files law," as it is popularly known, also made it possible to vet parliamentarians for Stasi connections.
-- John O. Koehler, Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police

Unlike, say, Bob Rubin (the Wall Street investment banker and incoming head of the National Economic Council), who probably needed half a law firm to vet his portfolio, I had no stocks or bonds.
-- George Stephanopoulos, All Too Human

Vet is short for veterinary or veterinarian, which comes from Latin veterinarius, "of or belonging to beasts of burden and draught," from veterinus, "of draught, of beasts of burden." The earlier sense was "to submit to examination or treatment by a veterinary surgeon," hence "to subject to thorough appraisal."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for vet

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