muggy
English edit
Etymology edit
From Old Norse mugga (“drizzle, mist”).
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
muggy (comparative muggier, superlative muggiest)
- (of the weather, air, etc.) Humid, or hot and humid.
- Synonyms: close, oppressive, sticky, sultry
- 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter XXXV, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:
- The next was a very unpropitious morning for a journey—muggy, damp, and drizzly.
- 1887, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter X, in Allan Quatermain[1]:
- What struck me as the most curious thing about this wonderful river was: how did the air keep fresh? It was muggy and thick, no doubt, but still not sufficiently so to render it bad or even remarkably unpleasant.
- 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXIX, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:
- The evening, though sunless, had been warm and muggy for the season, and Tess had come out with her milking-hood only, naked-armed and jacketless; certainly not dressed for a drive.
- 1964 June 16, “All Eyes On Lema At U.S. Open This Week”, in The Indianapolis Star, volume 62, number 11, Indianapolis, Ind., page 22:
- Muggy heat—temperature in the 90s and high humidity—greeted early arrivals for the 72-hole, three-day test, rated the hardest and most important in the sport.
- (obsolete) Wet or mouldy.
- muggy straw
- (obsolete, slang) Drunk.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
humid or hot and humid
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References edit
- (drunk): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary