adjective
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having or characterized by robust health
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strong or invigorating
a lusty brew
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lustful
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of lusty
Middle English word dating back to 1175–1225; see origin at lust, -y 1
Explanation
Someone who's lusty is healthy and passionate. A lusty young farm worker is strong and energetic, tackling each new challenge enthusiastically. You can be lusty in love, yearning for or infatuated with another person. You can also be lusty for life, filled with great strength and eager to live each day to the fullest. As time has gone by, lust and lusty have gained the "full of desire" meaning and lost some of the thirteenth century "joyful" sense of the words.
Vocabulary lists containing lusty
"Of Plymouth Plantation," Vocabulary from the historical account
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"The Tempest," Vocabulary from Acts 1 and 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Fans who had previously been happy cheering wins with lusty renditions of “Sweet Caroline” don’t mind that it has been shoved aside.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
A few lusty blows from Shepherd, Matthew Forde and debutant Terrance Hinds got West Indies beyond 150 but, with Buttler in such fine form, England made light work of knocking off the runs.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2024
Famously sampled in Madonna’s 2005 dance-floor reinvention “Hung Up,” this lusty 1979 Abba classic also boasts some excellent parentheses use.
From New York Times ● Jul. 25, 2023
Mercedes buyers who make lusty power and responsive handling their top priorities have always favored the company’s AMG performance line.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2023
As the other two boats finally passed them, the freshman boys raised a lusty cheer and pumped their fists in the air.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
Its cuisine is arguably less sophisticated than Provence’s, and yet it is more firmly rooted in the land it sprang from, and it is, I put to you, enjoyed with lustier abandon.
From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2017
Heartthrob invokes somber, marble notebook dumps as truthfully as it portrays its lustier foil.
From Time ● Feb. 1, 2013
Washington is bigger, lustier and louder than ever, and it is still the final point of impact on the presidency.
From Time Magazine Archive
CAB Chairman Ross Rizley feels that the time has come for additional service, lustier competition and new route awards.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Germans sang lustier and more voices came in until they killed the parody even as they had killed “Auld Lang Syne.”
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
A year after the loudest and lustiest of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments was played amid eerie silence and empty seats, the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2021
The lustiest cheers at the vast military parade marking Israel's 25th anniversary in Jerusalem last May were neither for tanks and paratroopers passing the reviewing stand nor Phantoms whooshing overhead.
From Time Magazine Archive
Their own evidence, however, proved that Osteopathy is still a cult, although the lustiest and most learned of the many cults which growl on the outskirts of orthodox Medicine.
From Time Magazine Archive
First big phonographic collection of works by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazil's No. i composer and one of the lustiest living.
From Time Magazine Archive
The lustiest of the women snatching up their infants ran away howling, and the little children run after squeaking and bawling; but the men stood still.
From Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 — Volume 2 by Phillip Parker King
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
