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
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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:
Parts of the Balkan region were set to swelter Sunday with temperatures of 39C expected in parts of Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro.
From Barron's ● Jun. 28, 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
That's where they've remained since Feb. 20, receiving little water and stale food as they swelter in the Panamanian heat.
From Salon ● Mar. 3, 2025
I asked Mother if I could cut off my hair, which hung in a dense swelter all the way down my back.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
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
As Southern California swelters under its most punishing heat wave of the year, international climate officials have confirmed that summer 2024 was Earth’s hottest on record.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2024
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
The city swelters with the mercury out of sight and then along steps the east wind.
From The Spanish Chest by Edna Adelaide Brown
While much of Europe and large parts of England and Wales have sweltered in record-breaking heat this summer, the weather here is overcast and relatively cool.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
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
As the region sweltered through its latest heatwave, the wildfire -- rare in the north of the country -- quickly spread, disrupting rail and road traffic during a busy holiday travel weekend.
From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026
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
Men froze by winter and sweltered in summer.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
We've taken a look at how the sweltering weather has left its mark on landscapes across the continent.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
The night before the run, Mehta took a five-hour train journey to a sweltering, remote location for the test, sleeping in an open field.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
The matriarch shares a sweltering tent with 18 others, mostly relatives, with eight minors among them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
Some had waited all afternoon in sweltering heat beneath the scant shade of umbrellas, while others, the best prepared, had set up their telescopes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
The ones that made a pulsing, rattling drone on a sweltering morning, signaling that the day would only grow hotter.
From "The Serpent King" by Jeff Zentner
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.
