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:
It’s easy to get lost in its layers of strings, to chase a cello’s lusty glide past innocent piano notes.
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2026
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 couple of lusty blows got Pepper's strike-rate up to 133.33 when he was out for a 21-ball 28, but that was still way below Brook's 221.42.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2025
By the end of the two-hour hike that evening, three lusty male tarantulas had been spotted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2023
At three in the morning on Billy’s morphine night in prison, a new patient was carried into the hospital by two lusty Englishmen.
From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
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
Giovanni Agnelli, chairman of Fiat, describes the present arrangement of economic partnership without political integration in lustier Italian metaphor.
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
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
Elastic Stop Nut Corp. of America, which paid more than $10 million in 1943 excess-profits taxes, is one of the nation's lustiest, most publicized war babies.
From Time Magazine Archive
Frederic Langford's topnotes were the lustiest and Frederic Langford was fairly dithering when he knew that he had won.
From Time Magazine Archive
Brightest wildflowers gleaming deep in lustiest grass, Glorious weeds that glisten through the green sea's glass, Match not now this marvel, born to fade and fall.
From A Channel Passage and Other Poems Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne—Vol VI by Algernon Charles Swinburne
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
