melting

Pluralmeltings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of melt.

   The glacier is melting faster than researchers expected.

   Melting steadily in the heat, the candle bent to one side.

   Note

   Melt is ergative, so the participle works in both directions: the sun is melting the snow, and the snow is melting. The form also carries the figurative uses of the verb, from a crowd melting away to a heart melting at kind words. It also covers the colloquial complaint "I'm melting" on a sweltering day. The same spelling serves as an adjective and as a noun.

2. 2
   adjective

   In the process of changing into a liquid, dissolving, or losing solid form.

   The melting glacier exposed rock that had been hidden for centuries.

   She scraped the melting wax off the brass candleholder.

   Oppositefreezing

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The change of a substance from solid to liquid, caused by heating it beyond the temperature at which it turns to liquid.

   The melting of the polar ice caps raises global sea levels.

   Engineers measured how long the melting took at different temperatures.

   Similarthawing, thaw, liquefaction

   Oppositefreezing, solidification

   Note

   The noun of the physical change is typically followed by of, and often by into. The Economist in 2013 called "the melting of ice into water" the starkest change that temperature brings about on Earth's surface. When separate events are meant, it can be counted, with the plural meltings. For the figurative easing of anger or hostility, see the softening sense.

4. 4
   adjective

   Filled with strong, tender emotion; deeply moved or tearful.

   The old man grew melting and tearful at the sight of his grandchildren.

   She was in a melting mood, ready to forgive everyone around her.

   Similartender, sentimental, emotional, soft

   Note

   Here the feeling belongs to the person: a melting mood, someone softened almost to tears. Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock (1714) asks what guards "the purity of melting maids" at courtly balls and midnight masquerades. In that line the word also hints at being easily stirred or won over. Compare the sense of moving others, which describes the look or voice that does the softening.

5. 5
   adjective

   Causing others to feel tender and deeply moved; able to soften someone emotionally.

   The singer's melting tones brought tears to the audience.

   He looked at her with such a melting expression that she forgave him at once.

   Similartender, soulful, moving, touching

   Note

   The softening power usually lives in a feature: melting eyes, a melting glance, melting tones. In Anthony Burgess's Time for a Tiger (1956), a child has eyes "both lively and melting", so the word sits beside brightness rather than sorrow. It is gradable, so one look can be more melting than another and a voice the most melting in the room.

6. 6
   nounfiguratively

   The softening or easing of something, such as severity, anger, or resistance.

   The diplomat's words brought about a melting of long-standing hostility between the two sides.

   A quiet melting of resentment spread through the family over the holidays.

   Similarsoftening, thawing, easing, thaw

   Oppositehardening

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