melt
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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melts,
present (3rd person singular)
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melted,
past participle, past
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molten,
past participle
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melting
present participle
-
to become liquefied by warmth or heat, as ice, snow, butter, or metal.
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to become liquid; dissolve.
Let the cough drop melt in your mouth.
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to pass, dwindle, or fade gradually (often followed byaway ).
His fortune slowly melted away.
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to pass, change, or blend gradually (often followed byinto ).
Night melted into day.
- Synonyms:
- fade
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to become softened in feeling by pity, sympathy, love, or the like.
The tyrant's heart would not melt.
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Obsolete. to be subdued or overwhelmed by sorrow, dismay, etc.
verb (used with object)
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melts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
melted,
past participle, past
-
molten,
past participle
-
melting
present participle
noun
-
the act or process of melting; state of being melted.
-
something that is melted.
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a quantity melted at one time.
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a sandwich or other dish topped with cheese and heated through until the cheese melts.
a tuna melt.
noun
verb
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to liquefy (a solid) or (of a solid) to become liquefied, as a result of the action of heat
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to become or make liquid; dissolve
cakes that melt in the mouth
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(often foll by away) to disappear; fade
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(foll by down) to melt (metal scrap) for reuse
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(often foll by into) to blend or cause to blend gradually
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to make or become emotional or sentimental; soften
noun
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the act or process of melting
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something melted or an amount melted
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To change from a solid to a liquid state by heating or being heated with sufficient energy at the melting point.
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See also heat of fusion
Synonym Usage
Melt, dissolve, fuse, thaw imply reducing a solid substance to a liquid state. To melt is to bring a solid to a liquid condition by the agency of heat: to melt butter. Dissolve, though sometimes used interchangeably with melt, applies to a different process, depending upon the fact that certain solids, placed in certain liquids, distribute their particles throughout the liquids: A greater number of solids can be dissolved in water and in alcohol than in any other liquids. To fuse is to subject a solid (usually a metal) to a very high temperature; it applies especially to melting or blending metals together: Bell metal is made by fusing copper and tin. To thaw is to restore a frozen substance to its normal (liquid, semiliquid, or more soft and pliable) state by raising its temperature above the freezing point: Sunshine will thaw ice in a lake.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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meltabilitynoun
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melternoun
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meltingnessnoun
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meltableadjective
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nonmeltableadjective
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nonmeltingadjective
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unmeltableadjective
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unmeltedadjective
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unmeltingadjective
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meltinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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meltsimple
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meltssimple
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have meltedperfect
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have moltenperfect
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has meltedperfect
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has moltenperfect
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am meltingprogressive
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are meltingprogressive
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is meltingprogressive
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have been meltingperfect progressive
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has been meltingperfect progressive
Past
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meltedsimple
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had meltedperfect
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had moltenperfect
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was meltingprogressive
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were meltingprogressive
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had been meltingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of melt1
First recorded before 900; Middle English melten, Old English meltan (intransitive), m(i)elten (transitive) “to melt, digest”; cognate with Old Norse melta “to digest,” Greek méldein “to melt”
Origin of melt2
First recorded in 1575–85; variant of milt
Explanation
To melt means to fade away slowly and disappear, like a snowman in the middle of the Sahara. "I'm melting! I'm melting!" — Those are the feeble cries of ice cubes on a hot summer day and Wicked Witches doused with water by a meddling girl from Kansas. To melt a stick of butter into liquid form sounds like an excellent idea for your popcorn — but perhaps not for your diet. And when your puppy looks up at you with those big brown puppy eyes, your heart probably melts — even if he just ate your slippers.
Vocabulary lists containing melt
Beowulf vocabulary
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Cheesy Goodness
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Words for Cheese Writers
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Unlike many recyclers, which melt electronic waste in bulk, the Royal Mint dismantles devices first.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
Water therefore appears to act mainly as a trigger that helps mantle rock melt more extensively.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
She knew they would melt and change form, and she wanted to see how.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Wearing a black T-shirt and skinny black jeans was meant to help Gough melt into the background.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
The sharp formations melt together to create a mirror of sorts.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
The results indicate that the mantle beneath the Kermadec island arc melts in the presence of water and at relatively high temperatures, above the sulfide liquidus.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
The zippered pocket in the bandanna holds up to 2 pounds of ice that drips out through tiny holes in the neoprene fabric as it melts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
People will say, “Oh, my dog hates all dogs” and then my dog pulls me over and the dog that hates all dogs just melts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
Think of this as savory frico brittle: buttery Ritz crackers, broken into uneven pebbles and hunks, tossed with Parmesan, herbs and a little fat, then baked until the cheese melts into crisp, golden clusters.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2026
Camille would call this a metaphor: me staring helplessly at something I once loved while it melts into a gooey mess.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Most cymbals are made of a copper and tin alloy that is melted into molten bronze which is poured into moulds and cooled into disc-shaped blanks.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
His collection began when the last commercial letterpress printer in the city closed in 2012 and he intervened to prevent the historic equipment being melted down.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
“They had pieces of my studio fused to them. Iron, glass. … Literally anything around it that melted and could not turn to ash got stuck to them,” Bayouth said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
They could instead have formed when sections of the ice shell melted locally.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
By mid-April, the snow melted enough that snowplows could clear a path on old logging roads up to a landing above Coldwater Creek.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
There, electrically conducting molten iron circulates around the solid inner core.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026
Most cymbals are made of a copper and tin alloy that is melted into molten bronze which is poured into moulds and cooled into disc-shaped blanks.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
When part of that rock melts, some elements are removed with the molten material.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026
If a furnace stops working, the molten metal will cool and solidify.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her waving us toward her, but the machine under Zu’s other hand had heated to a terrifying molten glow.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
A city long-known as a melting pot of cultures suddenly feels vulnerable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
You’ve got more important things to do, like binge-watching “Widow’s Bay,” or not melting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026
"London has always been a melting pot of diversity and celebrating communities."
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
The stronger and more repeated the melting becomes, the more effectively gold can be transferred into the magma.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
They both had mounds of white hair piled in flat puffs atop their heads like melting snowballs.
From "Willodeen" by Katherine Applegate
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
