melt

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

• I melted butter to make a cake.
• When the weather is warm, the snowman will disappear; he will melt.

To dissolve, disperse, vanish.figurativelyintransitive

• His troubles melted away.

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.ambitransitivefiguratively

• Thou would'st have […] melted down thy youth.
• For pity melts the mind to love.

To be discouraged.intransitive

To be emotionally softened or touched.figurativelyintransitive

• She melted when she saw the romantic message in the Valentine's Day card.
• My heart melted when I first heard the song.

To be very hot and sweat profusely.colloquialintransitive

• I need shade! I'm melting!

Molten material, the product of melting.countableuncountable

• The crust (a mere 1% of the Earth's volume) is made of lighter melt products from the mantle.
• Users can see how a glacier at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania retreated between December 1986 and 2020, as well as glacial melt in Sermersooq, Greenland, between December 2000 and 2020.

The transition of matter from a solid state to a liquid state.countableuncountable

The springtime snow runoff in mountain regions.countableuncountable

A melt sandwich.countableuncountable

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

Rock showing evidence of having been remelted after it originally solidified.countableuncountable

• Numerous samples of breccia and impact melts were recovered by drilling into the floor of the crater.

A wax-based substance for use in an oil burner as an alternative to mixing oils and water.countableuncountable

A soft, soppy, or overly emotional person.UKcountablederogatory

• You are from Blackburn you fucking melt...have a bastard word with yourself.
• Kiss it ya melt!

A centre-left or liberal person, when in opposition to a leftist; (especially) a critic of Jeremy Corbyn within the Labour Party.UKcountablederogatory

• Anyone who said different was a Tory, a melt or – worse – a Blairite. Centrists (mostly Labour voters) were the devil incarnate.
• They developed their own lexicon, with Corbyn critics referred to as 'melts' or 'slugs' while their man was lauded as 'the absolute boy'.

Alternative spelling of milt (“the semen of a male fish, used as food”).alt-ofalternativecountable

• A mass of herring melts, tinged with the streams of claret, had fallen into his hair, and this, added to his temporary stupor, had led to the Doctor's mistake.