lukewarm
- 1At a temperature somewhere between warm and cool.
Soak the dried mushrooms in lukewarm water for twenty minutes.
By the time the pizza arrived, it was barely lukewarm.
Similartepid
Note
Built from a word that already meant tepid: Middle English luke, with warm added after it, the same construction as German lauwarm. Tepid is the closest synonym in ordinary use, while luke on its own is now rare and lew survives only in dialect. Both lukewarmer and more lukewarm are possible comparatives.
- 2Showing little enthusiasm or interest, especially in response to a proposal or an idea.
Investors gave the merger a lukewarm reception, and the stock barely moved.
Several senators remain lukewarm on the proposal despite heavy lobbying.
Similarhalfhearted, indifferent, cool, apathetic, unconcerned
Oppositeenthusiastic, keen, eager, warm
Note
The figurative sense keeps steady company: a lukewarm response, reception or interest, often after met with, as when a new railway coach "met with a very lukewarm reception" in its early years. People are lukewarm about a plan, or on it. The American novelist Winston Churchill, in The Celebrity, still writes it as two words: "a luke warm interest."
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Origin
From Middle English leukwarm, lukewarm, "tepid", equivalent to luke "lukewarm" + warm; compare German lauwarm. The first element is believed to be an alteration of Middle English lew "tepid", from Old English hlēow "warm, sunny", from Proto-Germanic and ultimately Proto-Indo-European roots meaning "warm", and is cognate with Dutch lauw and German lau.