Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. angry.

1912

Ade Knocking the Neighbors 227: Father got so steamy that he had to blow off.

2. sweaty.

1962

S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 268: I changed my shirts three times a day – I was always steamy.

3. (orig. US) sexually arousing, erotic, salacious.

1957		‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 133: Stella, a real steamy dish.
1960		H.E. Bates When the Green Woods Laugh (1985) 279: I shouldn’t have thought you were cold [...] with the steamy way that Mrs Perigo kept looking at you. I hope you didn’t get any ideas about her?
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 304: The nudes in which I had slipped the back view of a buttocky boy, some of the steamier Pig Dinner ones.
1989		Viz June/July 20: Perhaps [...] a steamy foursome.
1999		Eve. Standard 4 June 29: The press gleefully reported his ‘steamy’ seven-hour sex session.
2008		Sun. Times (S.Afr.) 27 Jan. 27: Another party was under way – a steamy romp between two stunning models and a male partygoer.
2011		IOL News 21 Nov. 🌐 Masebe’s steamy scenes [...] will give people something more to get hot under the collar about.

4. (US gay) sexually excited.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 109: lusty [...] steamy.

5. used as adv., in a sexually arousing manner.

2001

‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 14: She began her bump-and-grind real slow and steamy.