swelter
/ˈswɛltə
/verb [no object]
Be uncomfortably hot: Barney sweltered in his doorman’s uniform...
- On the downside it's 300 km from the sea, freezing in the winter, sweltering in the summer.
- We were rained on hard enough to look for a second ark, we drove through three snowstorms in the mountains, we froze in a harsh Kansas wind, and we sweltered in southern Texas heat.
- I got to the top about 15 minutes before them but then I made a big mistake and took my hat off because I was sweltering.
Synonyms
hot, stifling, suffocating, humid, steamy, sultry, sticky, muggy, close, stuffy, airless, oppressive, tropical, torrid, burning, searing, parching, like an oven, like a Turkish bath, jungle-like
informal boiling, baking, roasting, blistering, sizzling
noun [in singular]
An uncomfortably hot atmosphere: the swelter of the afternoon had cooled...
- Now most of the crew will fight for their ship in a swelter of smoke and foul air.
- School children are sweating it out with soaring summer temperatures and record levels of humidity leaving the region in a swelter.
- There is a level of desperation provided in the performances, and the monochrome image sells the desert swelter very well.
Origin
Middle English: from the base of dialect swelt 'perish', of Germanic origin.
Rhymes
- with all guns blazing
- with all one's heart (or one's whole heart)
- with all one's might
- with (any or a bit of) luck
- with apologies to
- with a vengeance
- with a view to
- with a will
- with bells on
- with both barrels
- with (brass) knobs on
- with child
- withdraw
- withdrawal
- withdrawal symptoms
- withdrawing room
- withdrawn
- withe
- with effect from
- with effort
- with egg on one's face
- wither
- huarache
- Huascarán
- hub