Wetwork

"Wetworks" redirects here. For the comic series, see Wetworks (comics). For the novel, see Wetworks (Judge Dredd novel).

Wetwork (‹The template Lang-rus is being considered for deletion.› Russian: мокрое дело, romanized: mokroye delo)^[1] is a euphemism for murder or assassination that alludes to spilling blood.^[2] The expression and the similar wet job, wet affair, or wet operation are all calques of Russian terms for such activities and can be traced to criminal slang from at least the 19th century^[3][4] and originally meant robbery that involved murder or the spilling of blood.

The operations are reputed to have been handled by the CIA and by the KGB's SpecBureau 13 (Spets Byuro 13), known as the "Department of Wet Affairs" (Otdel mokrykh del).^[5][6][7]

See also

• Black operation
• I Heard You Paint Houses (the titular euphemism similarly refers to a hitman)
  • According to Frank Sheeran, the first conversation he had with Jimmy Hoffa over the phone, where Hoffa started by saying, "I heard you paint houses"—a mob code meaning: I heard you kill people, the "paint" being the blood spatter from the gunshot.^[8]