Subscriber login
Password
Forgot your password?
Library card login
Login with Shibboleth® »
Login with Athens »
Close menu
Oxford Dictionaries Online
The world's most trusted dictionaries
About
Subscriber services
What's new
Contact us
Help
Subscribe now
Already a subscriber or in a subscribing organization?
Login
Dictionary
Other language resources
US English
World English
Dictionary
Better writing
World of words
Puzzles and games
For children and schools
For learners of English
Email
Cite
swelter
(swel|ter)
Pronunciation:
/ˈswɛltə/
verb
[
no object
]
be uncomfortably hot:
Barney sweltered in his doorman’s uniform
noun
[
in singular
]
an uncomfortably hot atmosphere:
the swelter of the afternoon had cooled
Origin:
Middle English
: from the base of dialect
swelt
'perish', of Germanic origin
Nearby Words
sweetmeal
sweetmeat
sweetness
sweetsop
sweetveld
swell
swell box
swell organ
swelling
swelter
sweltering
swept
swept volume
swept-back
swept-up
swept-wing
swerve
Sweyn I
SWF