melted

1. 1
   adjective

   In a liquid state as a result of being heated until it melts.

   A pool of melted wax spread across the tabletop beneath the candle.

   The recipe calls for two tablespoons of melted butter stirred into the batter.

   Similarmolten, liquefied, liquid

   Oppositesolid, frozen

   Note

   The participle at work before a noun: melted butter, melted cheese, melted ice cream. It describes a state rather than an event, so where the past-tense verb tells what happened, this names what is liquid now. It can even be graded for things partway along. You might say the chocolate on the sunny side was more melted than the rest.

2. 2
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of melt.

   The candle wax melted and pooled across the saucer.

   By April the glacier had melted noticeably along its lower edge.

   Note

   The same form serves as both simple past and participle, and it carries every sense of melt. Because melt works both ways, it appears with an object (the sun melted the frost) and without one (the snow melted). The figurative uses come along too: a crowd melted away, an apology melted his anger, and on a hot afternoon people simply melted.

   The afternoon sun melted the frost off the windshield.

   Her apology melted his anger at once.

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