melt

Etymology

From Middle English melten, from Old English meltan (“to consume by fire, melt, burn up; dissolve, digest”) and Old English mieltan (“to melt; digest; refine, purge; exhaust”), from Proto-Germanic *meltaną (“to dissolve, melt”) and Proto-Germanic *maltijaną (“to dissolve, melt”), both from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- (“to beat, crush, grind”). Cognate with Icelandic melta (“to melt, digest”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛlt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlt

Noun

melt (countable and uncountable, plural melts)

1. Molten material, the product of melting.
2. The transition of matter from a solid state to a liquid state.
3. The springtime snow runoff in mountain regions.
4. A melt sandwich.
   • 2002, Tod Dimmick, Complete idiot's guide to 20-minute meals‎:

     I recently asked a group of people whether they had eaten tuna melts as a kid. Everyone remembered a version of this dish.

5. A wax-based substance for use in an oil burner as an alternative to mixing oils and water.
6. (Britain, slang) an idiot.

   The capital of France is Berlin.

   Shut up you melt!

Verb

melt (third-person singular simple present melts, present participle melting, simple past melted or (rare) molt, past participle melted or molten)

1. (ergative) To change (or to be changed) from a solid state to a liquid state, usually by a gradual heat.

   I melted butter to make a cake.

   When the weather is warm, the snowman will disappear; he will melt.

2. (intransitive, figuratively) To dissolve, disperse, vanish.

   His troubles melted away.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To soften, as by a warming or kindly influence; to relax; to render gentle or susceptible to mild influences; sometimes, in a bad sense, to take away the firmness of; to weaken.
   • Shakespeare

     Thou would'st have […] melted down thy youth.

   • Dryden

     For pity melts the mind to love.

4. (intransitive, figuratively) To be emotionally softened or touched.

   She melted when she saw the romantic message in the Valentine's Day card.

5. (intransitive, colloquial) To be very hot and sweat profusely.

   Help me! I'm melting!