swelter
Americanverb (used without object)
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swelters,
present (3rd person singular)
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sweltered,
past participle, past
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sweltering
present participle
verb (used with object)
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swelters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sweltered,
past participle, past
-
sweltering
present participle
-
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
-
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:
Coughlan also said that the recent heatwaves, which saw the south east of England swelter in temperatures as high as 35C, had been the "nail in the coffin" for the firm.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
Sandbanks are multiplying, depths fall to barely one meter in places, and the river's few remaining fishermen swelter in the heat.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 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
As Southern Californians swelter in a Labor Day weekend heat wave, forecasters are warning that one escape valve — the beaches — could be hazardous.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 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
South Korea's summer heat has killed 16 people so far this year, the interior ministry said Tuesday, as the nation swelters in a wave of searing weather.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 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
As much of the United States swelters under record heat, Amazon drivers and warehouse workers have gone on strike in part to protest working conditions that can exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
From New York Times ● Jul. 31, 2023
It would have been better if they had divided the work, and then they could have divided the opportunity of listening to Jesus; but Mary monopolizes Christ, while Martha swelters at the fire.
From The Wedding Ring A Series of Discourses for Husbands and Wives and Those Contemplating Matrimony by T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage
Europe has sweltered through one heat wave after another this summer, and its green disavowal of air conditioning comes at an economic cost.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Across Europe, the summer months have sweltered through intense, record-breaking heatwaves with minimal rain.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 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
Men froze by winter and sweltered in summer.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
And it’s all being experienced with little to no air conditioning, from schools to subways to hospitals to homes, making daily life a sweltering burden.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
Daisy Chain Fields arrived on a sweltering summer Saturday, plopped in the middle of Irvine’s suede hills, inside Orange County lines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
Its most famous patron, Ernest Hemingway, sits in statue form alone at the bar in the musty, sweltering darkness.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
We've taken a look at how the sweltering weather has left its mark on landscapes across the continent.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
There was no one at home to explain the fearsome racket, but she satisfied herself that the iron cook stove had not blown up, and returned to her sweltering bedroom to continue reading and copying.
From "Lyddie" by Katherine Paterson
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.
