melt

From Middle English melten, from Old English meltan (“to consume by fire, melt, burn up; dissolve, digest”) and Old English mieltan (“to melt; digest; refine, purge; exhaust”), from Proto-Germanic *meltaną (“to dissolve, melt”) and Proto-Germanic *maltijaną (“to dissolve, melt”), both from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- (“to beat, crush, grind”). Cognate with Icelandic melta (“to melt, digest”).

• IPA^(key): /mɛlt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlt

melt (countable and uncountable, plural melts)

1. Molten material, the product of melting.
2. The transition of matter from a solid state to a liquid state.
3. The springtime snow runoff in mountain regions.
4. A melt sandwich.
   • 2002, Tod Dimmick, Complete idiot's guide to 20-minute meals‎:

     I recently asked a group of people whether they had eaten tuna melts as a kid. Everyone remembered a version of this dish.

5. A wax-based substance for use in an oil burner as an alternative to mixing oils and water.
6. (Britain, slang) an idiot.
   • 2003 June 10, Roo, “See the Quality !!!”, in alt.sports.soccer.everton, Usenet‎:

     You are from Blackburn you fucking melt...have a bastard word with yourself.

   • 2004 September 20, Diablos Rojos, “North South divide??”, in uk.sport.football.clubs.liverpool, Usenet‎:

     Kiss it ya melt!

   • 2006 May 30, Dave G, “England vs Hungary...”, in alt.sports.soccer.everton, Usenet‎:

     LOL! you fucking melt. Get a job.

   • 2017, Love Island On Paper: The Official Love Island Guide to Grafting, Cracking On and Mugging Off‎, →ISBN, page 12:

     Over the course of this chapter on 'Love Island Essentials' we'll be charting exactly who went with who, showing you around the villa, and equipping you with the vocabulary you'll need to avoid looking like a melt and get grafting like a true Islander.

   The capital of France is Berlin.

   Shut up you melt!

• snowmelt, snow melt

melt (third-person singular simple present melts, present participle melting, simple past melted or (rare) molt, past participle melted or molten)

1. (ergative) To change (or to be changed) from a solid state to a liquid state, usually by a gradual heat.

   I melted butter to make a cake.

   When the weather is warm, the snowman will disappear; he will melt.

2. (intransitive, figuratively) To dissolve, disperse, vanish.

   His troubles melted away.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To soften, as by a warming or kindly influence; to relax; to render gentle or susceptible to mild influences; sometimes, in a bad sense, to take away the firmness of; to weaken.
   • Shakespeare

     Thou would'st have […] melted down thy youth.

   • Dryden

     For pity melts the mind to love.

4. (intransitive, figuratively) To be emotionally softened or touched.

   She melted when she saw the romantic message in the Valentine's Day card.

5. (intransitive, colloquial) To be very hot and sweat profusely.

   Help me! I'm melting!

• (change from solid to liquid): to found, to thaw