verb (used without object), melt·ed, melt·ed or mol·ten, melt·ing.
- to become liquefied by warmth or heat, as ice, snow, butter, or metal.
- to become liquid; dissolve: Let the cough drop melt in your mouth.
- to pass, dwindle, or fade gradually (often followed by away): His fortune slowly melted away.
- to pass, change, or blend gradually (often followed by into): Night melted into day.
- to become softened in feeling by pity, sympathy, love, or the like: The tyrant’s heart would not melt.
- Obsolete. to be subdued or overwhelmed by sorrow, dismay, etc.
verb (used with object), melt·ed, melt·ed or mol·ten, melt·ing.
- to reduce to a liquid state by warmth or heat; fuse: Fire melts ice.
- to cause to pass away or fade.
- to cause to pass, change, or blend gradually.
- to soften in feeling, as a person or the heart.
noun
- the act or process of melting; state of being melted.
- something that is melted.
- a quantity melted at one time.
- a sandwich or other dish topped with melted cheese: a tuna melt.
noun
- the spleen, especially that of a cow, pig, etc.
verb melts, melting, melted, melted or molten (ˈməʊltən)
- to liquefy (a solid) or (of a solid) to become liquefied, as a result of the action of heat
- to become or make liquid; dissolvecakes that melt in the mouth
- (often foll by away) to disappear; fade
- (foll by down) to melt (metal scrap) for reuse
- (often foll by into) to blend or cause to blend gradually
- to make or become emotional or sentimental; soften
noun
- the act or process of melting
- something melted or an amount melted
v.Old English meltan “become liquid, consume by fire, burn up” (class III strong verb; past tense mealt, past participle molten), from Proto-Germanic *meltanan; fused with Old English gemæltan (Anglian), gemyltan (West Saxon) “make liquid,” from Proto-Germanic *gamaltijanan (cf. Old Norse melta “to digest”), both from PIE *meldh-, (cf. Sanskrit mrduh “soft, mild,” Greek meldein “to melt, make liquid,” Latin mollis “soft, mild”), from root *mel- “soft,” with derivatives referring to soft or softened (especially ground) materials (see mild). Figurative use by c.1200. Related: Melted; melting. Of food, to melt in (one’s) mouth is from 1690s. Melting pot is from 1540s; figurative use from 1855; popularized with reference to America by play “The Melting Pot” by Israel Zangwill (1908). n.1854, “molten metal,” from melt (v.). In reference to a type of sandwich topped by melted cheese, 1980, American English.
- To change from a solid to a liquid state by heating or being heated with sufficient energy at the melting point. See also heat of fusion.
In addition to the idiom beginning with melt
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