BISSHO-RI びっしょり
Meanings
Describes a person or surface as extremely wet—drenched or soaking wet with sweat, rain, bathwater, or another large amount of liquid.
Examples
After only a few minutes in the sauna, my whole body is drenched in sweat.
サウナに入ると、数分で全身が汗でびっしょりになる。
Don’t walk around dripping wet after you get out of the bath.
風呂上がりにびっしょりしたまま歩かないで。
Dogmatic Opinion
Rain, heavy sweating, and bathing are the usual causes of this degree of wetness.
Japanese has many words for being wet, but BISSHO-RI makes me focus less on clothes absorbing water and more on water droplets densely covering the surface of the body.
Perhaps the BISSHI/HISSHI sound contributes to that image because words such as BISSHI-RI and HISHIMEKU also evoke things densely filling available space.
In any case, BISSHO-RI is clearly much wetter than SHITTO-RI or JITTO-RI. This is not mild dampness. It is a lot of water.
Proximate Expression
drenched
soaked
wet through
sopping
Related Words
For Japanese Learners
Drenched, soaking wet, soaked, and dripping wet are natural. “汗でびっしょり” is drenched in sweat or soaking wet with sweat. BISSHO-RI indicates a clearly large amount of moisture, far beyond SHITTO-RI or JITTO-RI.
