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 )
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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.
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
They swelter at summer temperatures that eclipse the city average by 8 degrees Fahrenheit and the Catalina Foothills by 12 degrees.
From Salon • Jan. 29, 2024
People labor six days a week in the tropical swelter, through torrential rains and under the punishing sun.
From New York Times • Dec. 30, 2023
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
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.
