muggy

From Old Norse mugga (“drizzle, mist”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈmʌɡi/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ʌɡi

muggy (comparative muggier, superlative muggiest)

1. (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:

     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.

2. (obsolete) Wet or mouldy.

   muggy straw

3. (obsolete, slang) Drunk.

• muggily
• mugginess

• (drunk): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary