# melt

Pronunciation: say "MELT" /mɛlt/

## Verb

1. To change, or be changed, from a solid into a liquid, usually through gradual heating.
   - Simple: To change from solid to liquid, usually because of heat.
   - _Butter will melt in seconds on a hot skillet._
   - _The blacksmith melted scrap iron down into a single ingot._
2. To soften emotionally, or to be moved by tenderness or affection.
   - Simple: To feel suddenly tender or loving because something touches your heart.
   - _Even the strict coach melted when his players surprised him with a card._
   - _Audiences melt during the film's final reunion scene._
3. To dissolve, disperse, or gradually vanish.
   - Simple: To slowly disappear or fade away until gone.
   - _The morning mist seemed to melt into the valley below._
   - _His anger melted the moment she apologized._
6. To soften someone through warmth or kindness; to make gentle, or sometimes to weaken their resolve.
   - Simple: To make someone gentler or weaker by warmth, kindness, or feeling.
   - _The general's flattery melted the loyalty of his rivals._
   - _Few things melt a parent's resistance faster than a child's tears._
8. To feel oppressively hot and sweat heavily. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To feel extremely hot and sweat a lot.
   - _Tourists melt in the midday heat of the desert markets._
   - _By noon the whole crew was melting under the stage lights._
12. To lose heart; to become discouraged.
   - Simple: To lose your courage or hope and feel down.
   - _The recruits melted under the sergeant's relentless criticism._
   - _Even seasoned climbers melt when the weather turns against them._

## Noun

4. The process in which a solid substance turns into a liquid.
   - Simple: The change of something from a solid into a liquid.
   - _The glacier's melt has accelerated over the past decade._
   - _Metallurgists timed the melt of the alloy precisely._
5. Molten material produced by melting; the liquid result of a melting process.
   - Simple: Hot liquid made by melting something solid, like metal or glass.
   - _The foundry tapped the melt directly into the casting line._
   - _Impurities rose to the surface of the melt as it cooled._
7. A hot sandwich, typically filled or topped with cheese melted under heat.
   - Simple: A hot sandwich with melted cheese on top, often grilled until soft and gooey.
   - _He grilled a classic patty melt with onions and Swiss cheese._
   - _Their lunch menu features a tuna melt on sourdough._
9. The runoff produced when mountain snow thaws in spring.
   - Simple: The water from melting snow that runs down mountains in spring.
   - _This year's melt came early, flooding the lower valleys._
   - _Reservoirs fill quickly once the melt begins in the high country._
10. A block of scented wax warmed in an oil burner instead of an oil-and-water mixture.
   - Simple: A small block of scented wax that you warm in a burner to fill a room with smell.
   - _He prefers wax melts to candles because there's no open flame._
   - _A single melt can scent a room for hours._
11. Rock that shows signs of having been remelted after originally solidifying.
   - Simple: Rock that once turned solid, then got hot enough to turn liquid again before hardening.
   - _The sample contained melt produced by an ancient meteorite impact._
   - _Thin layers of melt marked the boundary of the old fault zone._
13. A stupid, feeble, or contemptible person, used as a derogatory British slang insult. *(slang, UK)*
   - Simple: A stupid or foolish person, used as a rude insult.
   - _Only a melt would leave the front door wide open all night._
   - _The lads teased him, calling him a complete melt._
14. A center-left or liberal person regarded disparagingly by those further left, especially a critic of Jeremy Corbyn within the Labour Party. *(slang, UK)*
   - Simple: A moderate or fairly liberal person, used as an insult by people who are further to the left.
   - _Party hardliners spent the leadership race deriding every melt in the shadow cabinet._
   - _He was written off as a melt the moment he questioned the leader's strategy._
15. The semen of a male fish, eaten as food (a variant spelling of milt).
   - Simple: The soft white sperm of a male fish, eaten as food.
   - _Soft herring melt was served alongside the smoked fillets._
   - _Some chefs poach the melt gently before folding it into a sauce._

## Origin

From Middle English melten, which merged two Old English verbs, meltan (intransitive) and mieltan (transitive), both meaning "to melt, digest." These trace back through Proto-Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "melt," and are related to Icelandic melta ("to digest").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/melt (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).