heat
UK /hiːt/ · US /hit/ noun, verb
Forms heats heating heated het
- noun (uncountable) Thermal energy. “This furnace puts out 5000 BTUs of heat. That engine is really throwing off some heat. Removal of heat from the liquid caused it to turn into a solid.”
- noun (countable, uncountable) The condition or quality of being hot. “Stay out of the heat of the sun!”
- noun (uncountable) An attribute of a spice that causes a burning sensation in the mouth. “The chili sauce gave the dish heat.”
- noun (uncountable) A period of intensity, particularly of emotion. “It's easy to make bad decisions in the heat of the moment.”
- noun (uncountable) An undesirable amount of attention. “The heat from her family after her DUI arrest was unbearable.”
- noun (countable, baseball) A fastball. “The catcher called for the heat, high and tight.”
- noun (uncountable) A condition in which a mammal is aroused sexually or where it is especially fertile and therefore eager to mate. “The male canines were attracted by the female in heat.”
- noun (countable, fandom slang) In omegaverse fiction, a cyclical period in which omegas experience an intense, sometimes irresistible biological urge to mate.
- verb (transitive) To cause an increase in temperature of (an object or space); to cause to become hot (often with "up"). “I'll heat up the water.”
- verb (intransitive) To become hotter. “There's a pot of soup heating on the stove.”
- verb (transitive, figurative) To excite or make hot by action or emotion; to make feverish.
- verb (transitive, figurative) To excite ardour in; to rouse to action; to excite to excess; to inflame, as the passions.
- verb (transitive, slang) To arouse, to excite (sexually). “The massage heated her up.”
Synonyms
passion vehemence rut stoke warm up heat up hot up hot heat energy hotness high temperature warmth estrus oestrus heating system heating plant heating inflame stir up wake ignite fire up
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English hete, from Old English hǣtu, from Proto-West Germanic *haitī, from Proto-Germanic *haitį̄ (“heat”), from Proto-Indo-European *keHy- (“heat; hot”). Cognate with Scots hete (“heat”), Saterland Frisian Hatte (“heat”), Old High German heizī (“heat”). Related also to Dutch hitte (“heat”), German Hitze (“heat”), Swedish hetta (“heat”), Faroese and Icelandic hiti (“heat”). Related to hot.
From Middle English heten, from Old English hǣtan (“to heat; become hot”), from Proto-Germanic *haitijaną (“to heat, make hot”).
Either an alternative spelling of het (“heated”), a continuation of late Middle English heet, het (an analogical simple past of heten (“to heat”) created on the basis of bet, the past tense of beten (“to beat”)), or a later analogical formation from the past forms of beten's modern reflex beat.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A force in nature which is recognized in various effects, but especially in the phenomena of fusion and evaporation, and which, as manifested in fire, the sun's rays, mechanical action, chemical combination, etc., becomes directly known to us through the sense of feeling. In its nature heat is a mode if motion, being in general a form of molecular disturbance or vibration. It was formerly supposed to be a subtile, imponderable fluid, to which was given the name caloric.
- noun The sensation caused by the force or influence of heat when excessive, or above that which is normal to the human body; the bodily feeling experienced on exposure to fire, the sun's rays, etc.; the reverse of cold.
- verb To make hot; to communicate heat to, or cause to grow warm; as, to heat an oven or furnace, an iron, or the like.
- verb To excite or make hot by action or emotion; to make feverish.
Etymology [OE. hete, hæte, AS. h, h, fr. hat hot; akin to OHG. heizi heat, Dan. hede, Sw. hetta. See Hot.]
Etymology [OE. heten, AS. h, fr. hat hot. See Hot.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “heat”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details