Definition

1. Verb (Transitive):

   • To make something hotter or warmer: To increase the temperature of an object or substance.
   • To make something more intense, active, or excited: To increase the level of activity, emotion, or tension in a situation.

2. Verb (Intransitive):

   • To become hotter or warmer: To increase in temperature.
   • To become more intense, active, or excited: To increase in level of activity, emotion, or tension.

Usage Examples

• Verb (Transitive):
  • Could you heat up this soup for me? (Make the soup hotter.)
  • His aggressive comments heated up the debate. (Made the debate more intense.)
• Verb (Intransitive):
  • Wait for the engine to heat up before you drive. (Become hotter.)
  • The competition is really heating up in the final round. (Becoming more intense.)

Advanced Usage

• "to heat things up": An idiomatic phrase meaning to make a situation more exciting, tense, or romantic.
  • The new evidence really heated things up in the courtroom.
  • They added some candles to the dinner to heat things up.

Variants and Related Words

• Heat (verb): The base form. "Heat the water" is similar to "heat up the water," though "heat up" can sometimes emphasize the process of reaching a desired temperature.
• Heater (noun): A device that heats something.
• Heating (noun): The system or process of making something warm.
• Reheat (verb): To heat something again.

Synonyms

• Warm (up): To make or become warmer (often less extreme than "heat up").
• Intensify: To make or become more intense.
• Escalate: To increase in intensity or scope, often used for conflicts.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Warm up: Often used interchangeably with "heat up" for increasing temperature, but also commonly used for preparing muscles before exercise or an engine before use.
  • I need to warm up before I go for a run. (Prepare muscles.)
  • Let the car warm up for a minute. (Become ready to operate smoothly.)

Related Idioms

• Turn up the heat: To increase pressure on someone or intensity in a situation.
  • The manager turned up the heat on the team to finish the project.
• If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen: Used to say that if someone cannot deal with a difficult or stressful situation, they should remove themselves from it.

Verb

1. make more intense
   • Emotions were screwed up
2. make hot or hotter
   • the sun heats the oceans
   • heat the water on the stove
3. gain heat or get hot
   • The room heated up quickly