swelter

• sulter (obsolete)

From Middle English swelteren, frequentative form of Middle English swelten (“to die; faint”), from Old English sweltan (“to die”), from Proto-West Germanic *sweltan, from Proto-Germanic *sweltaną (“to die”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to smolder; burn”), equivalent to swelt +‎ -er (frequentative suffix).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈswɛl.tə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈswɛl.tɚ/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɛltə(ɹ)

swelter (third-person singular simple present swelters, present participle sweltering, simple past and past participle sweltered)

1. (intransitive) To suffer terribly from intense heat.
2. (intransitive) To perspire greatly from heat.
3. (transitive) To cause to faint, to overpower, as with heat.
   • 1796, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Fire, Famine, and Slaughter:

     It was so rare a piece of fun
     To see the swelter'd cattle run

swelter (plural swelters)

1. Intense heat.

   The summer swelter did not relent until late in September, most years.

• sultry
• sweltery, sweltry

• Lewters, Welters, welters, wrestle