torrid
/ˈtɒrɪd
/adjective
1Very hot and dry: the torrid heat of the afternoon...
- So he stood there with his bag in his hand, braving the torrid summer heat for three hours.
- The thermometer ranges from below zero in the winter to above 100 on torrid summer days when scorching winds sandblast the canyons.
- Tourists visiting Bangalore to get away from the torrid heat in cities such as Chennai and Hyderabad are now forced to endure the same unfavourable weather conditions here as well, though minus the humidity.
Synonyms
hot, sweltering, sultry, scorching, boiling, parching, sizzling, roasting, blazing, burning, blistering, tropical, stifling, suffocating, oppressive;
dry, arid, barren, parched, waterless, desert
1.1Full of passion arising from sexual love: a torrid love affair...
- We met and fell in love and had a torrid passionate affair.
- He thus tasked himself to extraction from what was not, oddly enough, a torrid steamy love affair with an accountant.
- In no time at all, both are head-first into a torrid, steamy love affair.
Synonyms
passionate, impassioned, ardent, intense, inflamed, fervent, fervid, lustful, amorous, erotic, sexy
informal steamy, sizzling, hot
2British Full of difficulty: he’d been given a pretty torrid time by the nation’s voters...
- A torrid Christmas is only part of their difficulties, as we explain on page four.
- Dolan admitted the torrid conditions had made life difficult, especially with Cheltenham firing in a number of dangerous crosses.
- John Williams, who had being giving their full back a torrid time, did exceptionally well to get to the by-line and pull the ball back to me.
3North American (Especially in financial contexts) characterized by intense activity; hard to contain or stop: the world’s most torrid economies...
- During the 1989-90 recession, for example, there was a torrid need for financial consultants as companies downsized.
- But the F1 business, for which the company is best known, had a torrid year financially.
- True, the city's new economy is unlikely to keep up its current torrid growth tempo.
Derivatives
torridity
- I do not know what else would dispel this oppressive torridity, ‘he sighed, ‘Wind, I suppose, would do, Sir.’
- Her striking azure eyes reflect the leaping blaze while her face is flushed from the intense torridity of such a realistic foreboding.
- Though my flesh ached with fire within my bones felt as ice and I trembled in torridity while sweating with cold.
torridly
- Jerry doesn't sing; everyone else does, to verdantly melodic, torridly gross-out tunes.
- His trumpet solos were as torridly intense as his vigorous tones that steered the surging ensembles.
- He received permission to photograph the small but torridly overdecorated apartment of Sousa.
Origin
Late 16th century: from French torride or Latin torridus, from torrere 'parch, scorch'.