swelter
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
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to oppress with heat.
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Archaic. to exude, as venom.
noun
verb
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(intr) to suffer under oppressive heat, esp to sweat and feel faint
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archaic (tr) to exude (venom)
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rare (tr) to cause to suffer under oppressive heat
noun
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a sweltering condition (esp in the phrase in a swelter )
-
oppressive humid heat
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sweltersimple
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swelterssimple
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have swelteredperfect
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has swelteredperfect
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am swelteringprogressive
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are swelteringprogressive
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is swelteringprogressive
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have been swelteringperfect progressive
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has been swelteringperfect progressive
Past
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swelteredsimple
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had swelteredperfect
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was swelteringprogressive
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were swelteringprogressive
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had been swelteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of swelter
1375–1425; late Middle English swelt ( e ) ren (v.), equivalent to swelt ( en ) to be overcome with heat ( Old English sweltan to die; cognate with Old Norse svelta, Gothic swiltan ) + -eren -er 6
Explanation
To swelter is to be hot — very, very hot, like on a humid, ninety-degree day. To swelter is to feel like you're in an oven. This word is most often seen in the form sweltering, as in "The weather is sweltering! It's been over 95 degrees for a week straight." Any form of swelter is going to involve major heat — enough heat to make you sweat buckets. The opposite of swelter is "freeze."
Vocabulary lists containing swelter
Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act IV
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"I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King Jr.
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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:
At least 101 million Europeans were forecast to swelter in temperatures of over 35C on Thursday, as scores of people were thought to have been killed by the heatwave.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
When the city starts to swelter, the smell of trash sticks ineradicably to a garbageman’s body and soul.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
The Baltic Sea offers beach getaways for those who would rather not swelter in Spain or inland.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2026
Warm spring evenings that soon will lip into summer swelter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2025
Beyond the ring of their firelight, there was nothing except animal sounds and insects, the black wildness of the jungles and swamps, the swelter of the interior.
From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi
The WMO outlook comes as western Europe swelters under a "heat dome" of warm air, breaking temperature records for May in Britain and France.
From Barron's ● May 28, 2026
While much of the UK swelters in the summer heat, Antarctica is celebrating an icy Midwinter's Day without any sun and with driving snow.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2025
SEE ALSO: South Korea scrambles as global Scout gathering swelters in ‘heat trap’
From Washington Times ● Aug. 7, 2023
The “heat island” effect of Phoenix’s growing urban footprint means that nighttime also now swelters.
From New York Times ● Jul. 11, 2023
Alongside the Oasis stands the garage, and in the garage swelters Casey,— during this episode.
From Casey Ryan by Bower, B. M.
The authorities suspect the wildfire began when a power line broke as Spain sweltered in extreme heat, creating tinderbox conditions.
From Barron's ● Jul. 11, 2026
Tens of millions of Americans sweltered under furnace-like temperatures Tuesday as central and eastern cities hunkered down for a heat wave set to last through the July 4 holiday weekend.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
"Europe bakes in fierce heat" is the FT Weekend's headline as it reports the continent sweltered through a fifth day of record-breaking temperatures, with thermometers topping 40C.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
Rajpal Singh sweltered on his routes, delivering hundreds of packages every day for Amazon to homes on twisty dirt roads in the hills and valleys surrounding Lancaster and Palmdale.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2024
Stuck on the second floor, Elizebeth sweltered in hundred-degree temperatures.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Sure enough, though, the longer the show went on, the more all the concerns about the cost, about geopolitics, and the sweltering conditions in Florida in July just melted away.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
LOS ANGELES—Hundreds of young women, and a handful of men, gathered on a sweltering June day in Hollywood searching for a love story.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
More than 165 million people were sweltering under record temperatures along the US East Coast and Midwest.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
In France this weekend, the Eiffel Tower and other Paris landmarks announced early closures as a quarter of the country was sweltering under the third heat wave to hit the country since May.
From Barron's ● Jul. 11, 2026
I can just picture the parliament room: a hundredy-some-odd Tata Ndus in pointy hats and no-glass glasses all flicking flies away with animal-tail magic wands in the sweltering heat, pretending to ignore each other.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
