astew

English

Etymology

From a- +‎ stew (“to suffer under uncomfortably hot conditions; to be in a state of elevated anxiety or anger”).

Pronunciation

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /əˈstʃʉː/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈstjuː/, /əˈstʃuː/
• (US) enPR: ə-sto͞o, IPA^(key): /əˈstu/
• Rhymes: -uː

Adjective

astew

1. stewing, very hot and wet
   • 1897, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, “In ‘Java Major’” (chapter II), in Java: The Garden of the East‎, The Century Co., page 18:

     Then every day has its afternoon shower, the air is heavy and stifling, all the tropic world is asteam and astew and afloat, vegetation is magnificent, insect life triumphant, and the mountains are hidden in nearly perpetual mist.

2. stewing, in a state of agitation
   • 1916 June, R. L. Medill, “The Way We Did It”, in Hunter-Trader-Trapper, volume XXXII, number 3, page 27:

     I, having the fishing germs cultivated a little more than my pals, was all astew to be out on the lake […] .

   • 1990 November 13, “Rash Censors in the Noriega Case”, in The New York Times, retrieved 16 September 2025:

     In the meantime the courts, all astew about publicity, have barely begun to use their resources to remedy the real wrong […] .

Anagrams

• Sweat, Weast, awest, swate, sweat, tawse, waste, wetas