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
Fresh from four months in federal prison, Navarro arrived on stage to a long and lusty ovation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2024
Inspired by the story of John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis, two British scholars of homosexuality in a deeply homophobic Victorian era, Crewe’s debut is by turns lusty, elegant and deeply informed by history.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2023
Watson set the tone early on with some lusty carries and it was the flanker, playing for game-time against Ireland, who started the rout.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2023
There was some light applause from the crowd and a conspicuous lusty cheer from the back of the tent that could only have come from a clump of my brothers.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
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
Its mannered, delicate style seemed so ill-suited to the topic that young Hu dashed off some lustier lines of his own.
From Time Magazine Archive
Those who favored lustier interpretations of the part were frankly disappointed at Gielgud's refusal or inability to scale the dramaturgic heights in the grand manner.
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
Loudest and lustiest of all is the fast-growing Sunday Pictorial, edited by 36-year-old Hugh Cudlipp, younger brother of Editor Percy Cudlipp of Labor's Daily Herald.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
Delegates to the first convention of the American Veterans Committee, lustiest & loudest of the scores of burgeoning World War II-born veterans' groups, were too busy for horseplay.
From Time Magazine Archive
Thou the lustiest and lousiest of this Cain's brotherhood, answer. 3RD BEGGAR.
From Becket and other plays by Alfred Tennyson, Baron Tennyson
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.
