1. Of the weather, the atmosphere, etc.: Oppressively hot and moist; sweltering.
1594. Kyd, Cornelia, II. i. 133. The spring, Whom Sommers pride (with sultrie heate) pursues.
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. ii. 101. Ham. The winde is Northerly…. Mee thinkes it is very soultry, and hot for my Complexion.
1671. R. Bohun, Wind, 65. The complexion of the Air is generally more silent … in Soultry Weather.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. vii. 213. We had now for several days together close and sultry weather.
1845. J. Coulter, Adv. Pacific, viii. 102. In this valley it is much more sultry than on the outside of the hilly range.
1871. Miss Braddon, Fenton’s Quest, I. i. 1. A warm summer evening, with a sultry haze brooding over the level landscape.
b. Of places, seasons of the year, etc.: Characterized by such weather.
1620–6. Quarles, Feast for Worms, 473, Wks. (Grosart), II. 13. A sowltry Summer’s euentide.
1704. Pope, Summer, 65. When weary reapers quit the sultry field.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. v. 181. The coast of Brazil is extremely sultry.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxii. A beautiful evening, that had succeeded to a sultry day.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, II. 274. The rigorous winters and sultry summers.
1865. Parkman, Huguenots, i. (1875), 6. They … pierced the sultry intricacies of tropical forests.
c. Of the sun, etc.: Producing oppressive heat. poet.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VII. 309. Such as born beneath the burning Sky, And sultry Sun betwixt the Tropicks lye.
1704. Pope, Summer, 21. The sultry Sirius burns the thirsty plains.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 297. Neither mist, Nor freezing sky nor sultry, checking me.
1804. Campbell, Turkish Lady, 5. Day her sultry fires had wasted.
1817. Moore, Lalla Rookh, Nourmahal, 50. When Day had hid his sultry flame Behind the palms of Baramoule.
2. Figurative and allusive uses.
a. Chiefly poet. (a) Associated with oppressive heat; characterized by the overpowering heat of toil; hot with toil.
1637. Milton, Lycidas, 28. What time the Gray-fly winds her sultry horn.
1682. Southerne, Loyal Brother, III. i. You were not form’d to run in natures herd, Sultry, and elbow’d in the crowd of slaves.
1824[?]. Coleridge, First Adv. Love, 5. The sultry hind … stays his reaping.
1833. Tennyson, Palace Art, 77. The reapers at their sultry toil.
(b) Characterized by the heat of temper or passion; hot with anger or lust.
1671. Milton, Samson, 1246. Stalking … in a sultrie chafe.
1704. Pope, Windsor For., 195. His [sc. Pan’s] shorter breath, with sultry air, Pants on her neck.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 741. The clouds [are] The dust that waits upon his sultry march, When sin hath mov’d him, and his wrath is hot.
1893. F. Adams, New Egypt, 78. Sultry and imperious, brutally and pettily tyrannical to his own immediate entourage.
1893. F. Thompson, Poems, Poppy, iii. With mouth wide a-pout for a sultry kiss.
b. colloq. or slang. (a) ‘Spicy,’ ‘smutty.’
1887. Kipling, Tales fr. Hills (1888), 175. Clean-built, careless men in the Army … told sultry stories till Riley got up and left the room.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 30 Jan., 4/3. A comedy of exceedingly sultry complexion.
(b) Of language: Lurid, ‘sulphurous.’
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 9 Oct., 1/2. Certainly no bishop ever heard more sultry or variegated language in his time.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 1 Oct., 3/3. She makes the mission ladies’ flesh creep, she’s that sultry with ’er tongue.
(c) ‘Hot,’ ‘warm,’ lively.
1899. Conan Doyle, Duet, xviii. I shall make it pretty sultry for you down at Woking.
1905. H. A. Vachell, The Hill, iv. 76. The Caterpillar would have made things very sultry for him.
c. In book-names of some birds, indicating a reddish tinge.
1783. Latham, Gen. Syn. Birds, II. II. 455. Sultry W[arbler]…. The edges of the feathers rufous.
1815. Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., IX. II. 544. Sultry Finch, Fringilla calida … upper parts of the body pale rufous brown.
Hence Sultry v. trans., to make hot.
1897. F. Thompson, New Poems, Ode Setting Sun, x. Cold as the new-sprung girlhood of the moon Ere Autumn’s kiss sultry her cheek with flame.
