sul·try  (s ŭl tr ē)
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adj. sul·tri·er, sul·tri·est 1. a. Very humid and hot: sultry July weather. b. Extremely hot; torrid: the sultry sands of the desert. 2. a. Expressing sexual desire: a sultry look. b. Arousing sexual desire: a sultry dance.
[From obsolete sulter, to swelter, possibly alteration of SWELTER.]
sultri·ly adv. sultri·ness n. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
Semitic Roots
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
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