different between sweater vs swelter

English

Etymology

From Middle English swetere, equivalent to sweat +? -er.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sw?t?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?sw?t?/, /-??/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /?swet?/
• Rhymes: -?t?, -?t?(r), -?t?(?)
• Hyphenation: sweat?er

Noun

sweater (plural sweaters)

1. A knitted jacket or jersey, usually of thick wool, worn by athletes before or after exercise.
2. (US) A similar garment worn for warmth.
3. One who sweats (produces sweat).
4. One who or that which causes to sweat.
   • 1906, Chesterton, Charles Dickens, chapter 3

     We learn of the cruelty of some school or child-factory from journalists; we learn it from inspectors, we learn it from doctors, we learn it even from shame-stricken schoolmasters and repentant sweaters; but we never learn it from the children; we never learn it from the victims.

5. A diaphoretic remedy.
6. (historical) An exploitative middleman who subcontracted piece work in the tailoring trade.

   Coordinate term: sweatee

   • 1894, New York (State) Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration, Annual Report (volumes 7-8, page 158)

     If the piecework system had not existed there never would have been any sweatees. The men who are sweaters, I am sorry to say, are men who formerly belonged to our union.

7. (archaic) One who sweats coins, i.e. removes small portions by shaking them.
8. (Britain, obsolete) A London street ruffian in Queen Anne's time who prodded weak passengers with his sword-point.

Synonyms

• (for sense 1): sweatshirt
• (for sense 2): jumper, pullover, jersey, cardigan, wooly
• (for sense 3): perspirer
• (for sense 4): exploiter

Derived terms

• sweater dress

Descendants

Translations

Verb

sweater (third-person singular simple present sweaters, present participle sweatering, simple past and past participle sweatered)

1. (transitive) To dress in a sweater.

Further reading

• sweater on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• wearest

English

Etymology

From Middle English sweltren, swaltren, frequentative form of Middle English swelten (“to die; faint”), from Old English sweltan (“to die”), from Proto-Germanic *sweltan? (“to die”), from Proto-Indo-European *swel- (“to smolder; burn”), equivalent to swelt +? -er (frequentative suffix). More at swelt.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?sw?l.t?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?sw?l.t?/
• Rhymes: -?lt?(r)

Verb

swelter (third-person singular simple present swelters, present participle sweltering, simple past and past participle sweltered)

1. (intransitive) To suffer terribly from intense heat.
2. (intransitive) To perspire greatly from heat.
3. (transitive) To cause to faint, to overpower, as with heat.
   • 1796, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Fire, Famine, and Slaughter

     It was so rare a piece of fun
     To see the swelter'd cattle run

Translations

Noun

swelter (plural swelters)

1. Intense heat.

Translations

Anagrams

• Lewters, Welters, welters, wrestle