[f. SULTRY a. + -NESS.] The quality or condition of being sultry; sultry heat.
1662. J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 8. Yet had they then made a fire, never considering the sultriness of the weather.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 125. I staid here till Four in the Afternoon to avoid the Soultriness of the Weather.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. v. 183. An idea of sultriness and suffocating warmth.
1813. Byron, Giaour, 300. ’Twas sweet of yore to see it [sc. the stream] play And chase the sultriness of day.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, xx. Somewhat sleepy with the sultriness of the afternoon.
fig. 1827. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, V. vii. My youth flourished in the unwholesome sultriness of a blighted atmosphere.
1886. ‘M. Field,’ Brutus Ultor, I. v. The sultriness of lust is in the air.
