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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
sultry
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a sultry voice
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ At first it feels cooler and then it begins to feel like a greenhouse: sultry.
▪ Forecasters said the weather was set to remain sultry and oppressive today, with temperatures in the 70s but little sun.
▪ It reminded us of our sultry Sunday afternoons in El Salvador.
▪ The day which since the rain had gradually become hot was now heavy and still and sultry.
▪ The weather was still heavy and sultry, the promised storm still not having broken.
▪ This talented five-piece pours a sweet and sultry mix of original torch melodies with a twist of crisp and snappy swing sounds.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sultry

Sultry \Sul"try\ (s[u^]l"tr[y^]), a. [Compar. Sultrier (s[u^]l"tr[i^]*[~e]r); superl. Sultriest.] [From Sweltry.]

  1. Very hot, burning, and oppressive; as, Libya's sultry deserts.

    Such as, born beneath the burning sky And sultry sun, betwixt the tropics lie.
    --Dryden.

  2. Very hot and humid, or hot, close, stagnant, and oppressive, as air.

    When in the sultry glebe I faint, Or on the thirsty mountain plant.
    --Addison.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
sultry

1590s, "oppressively hot, close and moist" (of weather), ultimately from swelter + alteration of -y (2), either as a contraction of sweltry or from obsolete verb sulter "to swelter" (1580s), alteration of swelter. Figurative sense of "hot with lust" is attested from 1704; of women, "lascivious, sensual, arousing desire" it is recorded from 1940. Related: Sultriness.

Wiktionary
sultry

a. 1 (context weather English) hot and humid 2 very hot and dry; torrid 3 sexually enthralling

WordNet
sultry
  1. adj. sexually exciting or gratifying; "sensual excesses"; "a sultry look"; "a sultry dance" [syn: sensual]

  2. characterized by oppressive heat and humidity; "the summer was sultry and oppressive"; "the stifling atmosphere"; "the sulfurous atmosphere preceding a thunderstorm" [syn: stifling, sulfurous, sulphurous]

  3. burning hot; extremely and unpleasantly hot; "the torrid noonday sun"; "sultry sands of the dessert" [syn: torrid]

  4. [also: sultriest, sultrier]

Usage examples of "sultry".

Her soft laughter was inviting, a sultry siren teasing him with the sexual allure of her voice.

The air was sultry, but no bolt of anathema from Clairvaux or Rome touched the consanguineous spouses in Poitou.

A sultry voice, tinged with annoyance, made all heads swivel to the open door way.

The sultry air impregnated with dust, the heat and smoke of burning palaces, palsied my limbs.

In a lofty pavilion of the gardens, one of these basins and fountains, so delightful in a sultry climate, was replenished not with water, but with the purest quicksilver.

Did they with thirst in summer burn, Lo, seltzogenes at every turn, And on all very sultry days Cream ices handed round on trays.

He had not been prepared for sultry eyes, creamy skin glistening with water and soap, and hands moving so sensually over her own curves and hollows.

But Mr Thewless was aware of no more than a growing sense of oppression which he put down partly to the sultry quality of this London morning and partly to the sombre richness of the apartment.

The coolness of early morning had been the only respite, and as the day grew hotter and more sultry, it was necessary to remain alert lest an uncautious moment destroy the best of plans.

A moment later Hugo put his hands on the sideboard and subjected the children to a powerful scolding, the gist of which dealt with the unseemliness of sultry displays of affection between brothers and sisters.

Brigade Headquarters, Major Kerman watched carefully, and at first light on that sultry Friday morning, the sky blazing scarlet along the eastern horizon, the Golani Commanding Officer let loose the dogs of war into the sleeping city of Hebron.

From the mountains, Botfield looks rather like a great blot upon the fair landscape, with its blackened engine-house and banks of coal-dust, its long range of limekilns, sultry and quivering in the summer sunshine, and its heavy, groaning water-wheel, which pumps up the water from the pits below.

Saxophone music from the Moonwalk and jazz from Jackson Square beyond filtered through the sultry, humid August night.

He had once again stirred the enmity of the Protestant Anti-Saloon League by refusing to ban either Sunday movies in general or the films of a sultry actress of the period named Mabel Normand in particular.

In a lofty pavilion of the gardens, one of these basins and fountains, so delightful in a sultry climate, was replenished not with water, but with the purest quicksilver.