melt
pronunciation
How to pronounce melt in British English:
UK [melt]
How to pronounce melt in American English:
US [melt]
-
- Noun:
- the process whereby heat changes something from a solid to a liquid
-
- Verb:
- reduce or cause to be reduced from a solid to a liquid state, usually by heating
- become or cause to become soft or liquid
- become more relaxed, easygoing, or genial
- lose its distinct outline or shape; blend gradually
- become less clearly visible or distinguishable; disappear gradually or seemingly
- become less intense and fade away gradually
Word Origin
- melt
- melt: [OE] Melt goes back ultimately to an Indo- European *meld-, *mold-, *mld-, denoting ‘softness’, which also produced English mild and Latin mollis ‘soft’ (source of English mollify and mollusc). Its prehistoric Germanic descendant *melt-, *malt- produced the verb *maltjan ‘dissolve’, which has become English melt. Malt comes from the same Germanic source, and smelt [15], a borrowing from Middle Low German, goes back to *smelt-, a variant of the base *melt-.=> malt, mild, mollify, mollusc, smelt
- melt (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 *gamaltijan (cognates: Old Norse melta "to digest"), both from PIE *meldh-, (cognates: 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).
- melt (n.)
- 1854, "molten metal," from melt (v.). In reference to a type of sandwich topped by melted cheese, 1980, American English.
Example
- 1. Bananas turn brown when they 're cold , yet frozen food mustn 't melt .
- 2. This could melt the plagioclase and reset its age .
- 3. Continental ice will continue to melt .
- 4. Natural pearls will melt in vinegar .
- 5. The bulb itself is rotated quickly by a motor to cool it-otherwise it would melt .