melt

Signification

Verb

1. To change (or to be changed) from a solid state to a liquid state, usually by a gradual heat.
2. To dissolve, disperse, vanish.
3. 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.
4. To be discouraged.
5. To be emotionally softened or touched.
6. (colloquial) To be very hot and sweat profusely.

Noun

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.
5. Rock showing evidence of having been remelted after it originally solidified.
6. A wax-based substance for use in an oil burner as an alternative to mixing oils and water.
7. (slang) An idiot.
8. Variant spelling of milt, the semen of a male fish, used as food.

Prononcé comme (IPA)

/mɛlt/

Étymologie

From Middle English melten, from a merger of Old English meltan (intransitive) and mieltan (transitive), both meaning “to melt, digest,” from Proto-West Germanic *meltan and *maltijan, from Proto-Germanic *meltaną and *maltijaną, both from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- (“melt”). Cognate with Icelandic melta (“to digest”).