| / English Dictionary |
MELT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected form: molten
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The process whereby heat changes something from a solid to a liquid
Example:
the thawing of a frozen turkey takes several hours
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("melt" is a kind of...):
heating; warming (the process of becoming warmer; a rising temperature)
phase change; phase transition; physical change; state change (a change from one state (solid or liquid or gas) to another without a change in chemical composition)
Derivation:
melt (become or cause to become soft or liquid)
melt (reduce or cause to be reduced from a solid to a liquid state, usually by heating)
II. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they melt ... he / she / it melts
Past simple: melted
Past participle: melted
-ing form: melting
Sense 1
Meaning:
Become less intense and fade away gradually
Example:
her hopes evaporated after years of waiting for her fiance
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "melt" is one way to...):
weaken (become weaker)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Sense 2
Meaning:
Become less clearly visible or distinguishable; disappear gradually or seemingly
Example:
The tree trunks are melting into the forest at dusk
Synonyms:
fade; melt
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "melt" is one way to...):
weaken (become weaker)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Sense 3
Meaning:
Become more relaxed, easygoing, or genial
Example:
With age, he mellowed
Synonyms:
mellow; mellow out; melt
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "melt" is one way to...):
change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)
Verb group:
mellow (soften, make mellow)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Sense 4
Meaning:
Become or cause to become soft or liquid
Example:
dethaw the meat
Synonyms:
dethaw; dissolve; melt; thaw; unfreeze; unthaw
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "melt" is one way to...):
flux; liquefy; liquify (become liquid or fluid when heated)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "melt"):
deliquesce (melt or become liquid by absorbing moisture from the air)
de-ice; defrost; deice (make or become free of frost or ice)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Derivation:
melt (the process whereby heat changes something from a solid to a liquid)
meltable (capable of melting)
melter (a worker who melts substances (metal or wax etc.))
melting (the process whereby heat changes something from a solid to a liquid)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Lose its distinct outline or shape; blend gradually
Example:
Hundreds of actors were melting into the scene
Synonyms:
meld; melt
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "melt" is one way to...):
blend; coalesce; combine; commingle; conflate; flux; fuse; immix; meld; merge; mix (mix together different elements)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP
Sense 6
Meaning:
Reduce or cause to be reduced from a solid to a liquid state, usually by heating
Example:
The wax melted in the sun
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "melt" is one way to...):
break up; dissolve; resolve (cause to go into a solution)
Verb group:
bleed; run (be diffused)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "melt"):
fuse (make liquid or plastic by heating)
render; try (melt (fat or lard) in order to separate out impurities)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Derivation:
melt (the process whereby heat changes something from a solid to a liquid)
meltable (capable of melting)
melting (the process whereby heat changes something from a solid to a liquid)
Context examples:
It is mostly found as a white, odorless, tasteless, waxy solid, with a melting point between 47C and 65C.
(Paraffin, NCI Thesaurus)
Here, the protein ‘melts’ and releases the RNA.
(Mechanism behind neuron death in motor neurone disease and frontotemporal dementia discovered, University of Cambridge)
A team of University of Utah seismologists has discovered a reservoir of hot, partly molten rock hidden 12 to 28 miles beneath Yellowstone's supervolcano.
(Yellowstone magma discovery, NSF)
The new molten air batteries, by contrast, offer the best of both worlds: a combination of high storage capacity and reversibility.
(New, high-energy rechargeable batteries, NSF)
The warmer temperatures encourage melting and sublimation at all ice surfaces exposed to the air.
(Retreat of Yakutat Glacier, NASA)
The stress you have felt in your profession will start to melt, dear Aries.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
That sky with its high and light clouds which are sure to melt away as the day waxes warm—this placid and balmly atmosphere?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
She's got such a soft heart, it will melt like butter in the sun if anyone looks sentimentlly at her.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
But this, with the look of sorrow accompanying it, was enough to melt Catherine's pride in a moment, and she instantly said, “Oh, Eleanor, I will write to you indeed.”
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I will melt the stony hearts of your enemies by my tears and prayers.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
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